Into the Star-Verse: The Space Warni-Corps
by Sir-Spoder
Summary: When the multiverse falls into peril, it looks out in the vast cosmos for a savior, and in the distance it sees a group of dimension hopping space cops consisting of Star Butterflys from infinite alternate universes and timelines. The Stars wield the magic wand, the most powerful weapon in the universe. When you join the Corps, you swear to the cause and speak the oath: sacrifice.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Prissy Princess Star part 1**

There once were gods.

But before there were gods, there were Butterflies.

One Butterfly asked her mother what the magic wand could do. And her answer?

"You are not ready for such power."

That girl was me, Star Butterfly. And I obeyed my mother, nodded my head. Because that was what she asked of me. By the will of the Allmother, thus it must be so.

But in Dream, I still longed for that power, that transcendence, the cosmic knowledge that came with the wand. I knew I was not ready, I knew. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a bit curious. The most limitless device in the universe, operated by a mere thought.

Tempting, but overwhelming.

Which was exactly why I had asked my mother to travel abroad – to study. To train myself and prepare for the day I would be crowned queen. The day I would finally get to wield the magic wand.

To my surprise my mother actually agreed to the proposal.

She made all the arrangements, planned for every possible scenario, and gave me the best education money could buy. She was the Allmother after all, it was by her word that I was to be trained. And her word was absolute.

There was one thing she didn't account for though, and that was the fact that I would eventually run into this rapscallion named Marco Ubaldo Diaz. My mother thought him a degenerate when she first met him. Crude, unrefined, and a bad influence on me apparently. I overheard that during a conversation with my father.

A harsh assessment, but she wasn't exactly wrong.

The boy was sloppy, often wearing informal garments of black leather or sleeveless hoodies – sometimes both. He was violent, quick to anger, which would often be the cause to the boy getting himself into trouble, into detentions, into fights.

And yet – despite all of that. Somehow, some way, by some miracle no science could explain, no mind could comprehend.

The two of us became friends. Perhaps even best friends. Or even… something more.

Of course, it didn't look like it at first. If anything, the two of us hated each other's guts. Every moment in one another's presence spawned another heated argument. Sometimes petty, sometimes longwinded. But always a constant. I simply could not stand his scent, his reckless energy.

"Don't be absurd, Lily," I told my best friend through my compact. "Just the thought of him makes me want to throw up. You disappoint me, Princess of the Pony Head kingdom. To think my own best friend would think so little of me. Me! And, what do you call him? Earth Turd? Yeah. Pfft, impossible."

But Fate decreed otherwise. And worst of all, my mother saw through it.

Of course she did. She was the Allmother. She knew things not even the Commission knew. Sometimes I wished she didn't know so much. Or at least couldn't see as far.

She also knew how hard it was for me to adapt to this new life. These Earth people were different from my old Mewman friends. They had one heck of a stiff upper lip, a lot of them anyway. They took their studies very seriously. I mean, having high standards made sense. I too have high standards. But a lot of these guys were noticeably a lot less friendly for some reason.

One Brittney Wong, president of the debate club, and her posse was an example of this. I am fairly certain she did not like me very much, if at all. She tried to find any excuse she could get to single me out whenever possible.

"Ugh, use a proper pen with readable handwriting next time okay, princess?" Said Brittney as she examined the debate document I prepared. "You know? Like a normal person? We're trying to keep everything uniform and organized here."

"What? You've never seen a quill before? I just thought I ought to practice my penmanship is all. Funny enough, back on Mewni we actually store everything on a computer system. It's very efficient, and quite fascinating considering what our previous archive system was and…"

"We have computers here, too, your highness," Brittney sneered.

"Her majesty here has been up in those cloud kingdoms for so long she forgets about us lowly mortals down here," Sabrina chimed in.

"Is that like a personal attack or something?" Hope cried.

"What? No!" I desperately cried out. "No, no, no, that's not how I meant that to come off. I'm sorry."

"Just stick to the procedures we discussed, princess," said Brittney, wrapping this up. "Normal handwriting we can all read, please. Not all of us here are fancy and rich like you."

My father King River would often try to comfort me by saying those kids were all just jealous of me and that was all. I knew he meant well, but… I just…

I love my father, but I don't think he understood. Nobody really did. At least nobody I knew of then.

Things didn't go much better with the boys in my class either. The shy and socially awkward nerdier kids would often be too afraid to even approach me, much less talk to me. They seemed nice, but I don't think we had all that much in common then.

And on the other hand, the jocks, the bullies of the football teams found me an easy target for teasing and harassing either during class or during lunch, or even after school.

Marco was often unconcerned through all this. Or at least, he tried to make it look as such. But like I said, my mother saw right through that.

"I'm going to ask out that new girl right after the game. It's going to be wild. New girl, what's her name, um… Star, yeah, Star," Justin Armberg grinned as he walked with his posse.

"Heh, nice bro," said Lars. "Third time's the charm."

These guys didn't realize it at the time, but I was actually nearby listening into their conversations. It wasn't very surprising. Same old story. They had been trying this schtick for over a week now. It got old really fast.

"But aren't you dating Jackie or something?" Oskar asked.

"Shut up, Oskar," Justin scoffed, adjusting his collar. "Just think about it, who on earth could resist all of this?"

"Oh, I can think of a few people actually," a snarky voice echoed from behind. Forcing Justin to turn his head.

And there he met his gaze with one Marco Diaz.

I did not like what came after this, I never did.

"For one thing, the princess is not actually from Earth," Marco smiled. "So that already put a pretty big dent in your ship now hasn't it?"

"Walk away now, Diaz," Justin warned, "if you know what's good for you."

Do as he said, Marco, I whispered under my breath, hoping he would listen. Come on, you idiot. But this was Marco Diaz, the school's bad boy. Of course he would not listen, never in a million years. I wished I had my wand there and then, I could make a million years pass by at that moment, to see if he would change.

"It ain't your business, Diaz. Walk away."

"Yeah," Lars chimed in. "What are you, her boyfriend or something?"

"No," Marco firmly said. "But I am going to teach you no good cheating bozos a lesson if you keep overstepping your boundaries like this."

"Last warning, Diaz."

"What's wrong, Justin?" Marco smirked. "Why the attitude? Compensating for something? Mommy never loved you enough because daddy walked away from home when you were little?"

"THAT'S IT!"

The detention hours were long and unforgiving. But Marco told me he didn't mind. It was a daily occurrence for him. A small price to pay, but a price he chose to pay regardless, and my mother, the Allmother was one of the only few who saw him pay that price at all.

The other one who saw was me.

"What in Mewni's name were you thinking?" I scolded him as I stuck a bandage on his bruised forearm.

"Ouch! Be careful," Marco cried.

"Told you it would sting," I said. "Why do you have to be so reckless all the time?"

"Get off my back, princess. It's none of your business."

"I am your friend, Diaz. Of course it's my business."

"You – are NOT…" the boy hesitated, withdrew and fell silent. I think he saw the disappointment in my eyes. I admit, it was tough to get through to him, to get through this wall he put up. So I just carried on wrapping the bandages around the injuries.

"So… I matter so little to you, is that it?" I muttered.

Marco gave out a long sigh:

"That's not it."

"I worry for you, you know?" I began to feel a blush on my face.

The boy sighed once more:

"I know, princess. I know."

"Then why do you worry me?"

"I… I… I don't know. Maybe for no reason. Maybe I just thought… that you're having a lot on your plate as it is. A bunch of jocks harassing you would just be unnecessary pepperoni."

I glanced at the young reckless boy with glimmering eyes. Feeling a warmth welcoming my desperate lonely heart into a noble embrace. In that moment, I knew this boy was anything but just a simpleton, a heartless brute. He wasn't as much a bad boy as he made himself out to be, that I was sure.

"Th… thank you," I told him.

Thus, he smiled:

"You're welcome… princess."

Marco and I had been through a lot together. We argued, we fought, we bickered, but at the end of the day – I would rather let the universe die before I let him die. It sounded terrible, I know, and maybe even selfish. But it was the truth. Even if a gateway from the hell beneath opened up to swallow the world whole, it was hard for me to admit at the time, but I would gladly travel to the edge of the world itself and serve the planet to the devils below if it meant he could live.

Because Allmothers knew he would not hesitate to do the same for me.

The problem only arose when the angels from heaven descended from above instead of the demons. Because the only thing scarier than an agent of the Devil is an agent of God.

He was called Toffee, though I suspected that might not be his real name. He arrived one day, out of nowhere, with no warning. I didn't think much of it. The villain I had faced before, Ludo, was more a nuisance than a real problem. And yet this Toffee, this lizard with a ridiculous name did more than Ludo could ever do in decades.

He took Marco without lifting a finger.

"Mother please," I implored my Queen. "Let me use the wand. I know you said I'm not ready. But please – I beg of you."

"Say no more, daughter of Mewni," the Queen announced, to my immediate surprise.

Moon, Queen of Mewni, Daughter of Butterfly extended her hand as she stood from her throne. She stood in that pose, arm out, firm as a statue. One unfamiliar with the Queen would not understand what she was doing. But up close, I could clearly feel the cosmic weight of the Moonforce flowing through her body.

The Moonforce – a mysterious cosmic energy unique to the Queen that not even I understood its full extent.

The magic wand was the most intricate and powerful device in all of existence. With it, one could theoretically accomplish anything, possible or impossible. And when the Allmother added the Moonforce to the equation – she was able to push beyond.

And speak of the devil, there from beyond the walls and the gates – the royal magic wand soared through the air right into the palm of the Queen's hand, faster than any arrow known to Mewman kind, even arrows enchanted with magic. Because the wand was magic in its purest form.

The Queen spoke on, a mighty voice echoing across these great halls:

"I, Moon Allmother, invoke the name of my mother, and her mother before, to grant you, Star, Daughter of Butterfly, the power cosmic magic. _I render unto thee!"_

With the might of the Moonforce, she tossed the wand unto me, her daughter. Letting the weight of the magic land onto my palm. It was heavy, incredibly dense, but also invigorating. The magic flowed through my body as the wand itself took shape appropriate to my own current state of being. I could see farther than ever before, I could see clearer than any telescope, and I understood things even the wisest Mewman scholars could not understand. The shapes of subatomic strings vibrating at specific frequencies in all the things around me, the cement, the floor tiles, the throne, the fabric of the cloth, my breath, my hair, my father's hair, his skin, his clothes, his cape, my mother, her magic.

I, princess, daughter of Mewni, protector of the kingdom, to bear the weight of magic and infinite power. I understood my mother's warning, I really was not ready, but that did not matter right now. The magic and power may destroy my body, but if it was enough to save Marco then I would gladly do it, a thousand times if necessary.

"Speak, daughter of Mewni," Moon commanded.

With the might and echo of the magic, my voice boomed with great weight:

"Castle Avarius."

"Go forth," said the Allmother, "ride with my full authority. Protect that is precious – life."

A storm began to brew above the castle of the birds. Inside one vicious and cruel lizard man of great power and knowledge sat, and there he smiled – waiting for the Butterfly.

"You'll never defeat her," Marco cried out, I could hear him from far away, locked behind the glass. "She's coming for you, and when she does, oh man you are going to get it, lizard man."

The immortal lizard did not respond. He didn't even think to give the boy a passing glare. Instead, he sat there on his throne of metal, unbreakable. Sitting there, pondering things he had seen before, thinking of ways to adapt, and learn.

And learned he did – with cosmic knowledge he smiled.

Just as he had planned, it did not take long before I showed up at the castle's doorsteps, storming into the room, storming the castle.

In my hand wielding the most powerful weapon in the universe. Sparkling with majestic rainbow lightning, encompassing my entire body, with the power of the Moonforce channeling through my veins. My eyes lit up, glancing at the empty hall, and over yonder a lizard on a throne, with his human captive behind a box of glass.

"Let him go," I commanded in the name of my mother. "I shall not say twice."

"Princess," Toffee smiled. "Welcome. Care for a drink?"

I raised my wand, pointing it straight at the Septarian. The rainbow electric sparks were oozing from the tip, bursting out with immense energy. In that moment, Toffee knew – that wand was as heavy as the planet itself.

"Come weary traveler," said Toffee. "Let's discuss this."

"I can destroy you with a single blast of my wand," I echoed my mighty voice. "It would be so easy. Just a single thought. But why incinerate you when I can turn you into rocks and scatter your soul across the universe? Why simply destroy you when I can just turn you into a frog and have you poison yourself? Do you see where I'm going with this? Do you have any idea what I can do with this wand here? So last time, lizard man – let him go!"

But Toffee merely responded with a chuckle. His fingers curiously tapping on the side of the throne.

"Go ahead, princess," he smiled, gesturing towards the glass box. "Be my guest."

Confused, I did not know whether this was a trap and I should keep pointing my wand at the lizard, or if Toffee was being completely serious.

Toffee began explaining to me, as much as my confusion seemed to amuse him so much:

"This is Rhombulus's crystal. They are virtually indestructible."

"I've fought those before," I pointed my wand at the glass. "What's to stop me from just willing the crystal out of existence?"

"Hmm, the destruction of the universe, perhaps?" Toffee tapped his chin.

It made me flinch, and it was exactly what Toffee was counting on.

"That's right, daughter of Mewni," Toffee smiled at my horrified look, knowing full well I had the knowledge to understand what the crystal was. "It is a fundamental force of nature. It exists by necessity, like time, numbers, Reality – _Dream_. You know what that means, don't you?"

I furiously pointed the wand right back at the lizard. Anger in my eyes, but they were slowly getting weary. The Moonforce was overpowering my senses, letting me see things that under normal circumstances I wouldn't even be able to notice. New senses I normally wouldn't have access to, senses beyond the five basic ones. Some more abstract than others, some hidden in plain sight.

And there Toffee stood, grinning at my apparent fatigue.

"The crystal is under my thumb, and he is beneath the crystal," he said. "So when you are willing to discuss this, then maybe we can do something about it."

With a press of a button, a loud clicking began snapping at the corners of the crystal. Gradually shrinking, bringing down the roof with Marco still inside, right underneath it.

The boy began to squirm, punching onto the indestructible walls around him, trying desperately to find any weakness in the structure. For he did not want to reveal any weakness in his.

"Don't listen to him, Star!" Marco shouted, banging on the glass. "Destroy him now! It's a trick. All of it!"

"Come now, my dear," said Toffee. "Let us discuss this."

"What do you want, you maniac?" I grunted, pointing my wand at him.

And the Septarian simply responded:

"I want… a spell."

"What?"

"It's very simple. Surely by now you must understand the true nature of the magic wand now that you have the chance to wield it in its full glory. You know what the wand is, don't you?"

"I… no…" I hesitated, before lowering the wand, with the energy still overwhelming my senses, draining my stamina. "The wand… it… it showed me things. Things I've never seen before. The wand – it has… commands. Directions on how to operate the device. It's like a computer. The spells."

Toffee grinned devilishly:

"Exactly. And since the wand has universal reach, it means…"

"It means… it can do anything."

"A wishing device," Toffee's eyes gleamed up in hunger.

"What do you want?" I cried out in madness. "Oh, for corn's sake, stop the crystal!"

"I'm fine, Star! Destroy him!"

"I'll stop it when you give me what I want. It's very simple. A wish – a wish for the death of things."

"What things?"

"All things."

I began to see things again, this time visions of things unfamiliar and yet familiar. I saw a Butterfly totem, larger than the Butterfly Castle itself. In the infinite spectrum of its compound eyes, infinite round specks of dust with tiny citizens living on top their soils.

I saw two titans, standing on two bubbles. One of toxic waste, the other of golden machineries. The titans are locked in a stare-down, with neither willing to back down. Not now, not forever. Even with the infinite power of the wand, I still could not see what the titans looked like. Shapeless blobs of indeterminate nonsensical shapes taken form, forms too incomprehensible or even dangerous to mortal eyes.

I saw four mighty celestial bodies, bright and blinding with light. In their hands each were greatswords of the heavens, multiple heavens, drawing power from a place above Skyland, above space, beyond time, and above even the crystals. What was Skyland? How did I know that word?

Four celestial bodies, four agents of power, coming together to form a union. And followed shortly behind them – infinite celestials, infinite greatswords.

My eyes flung wide open, now at my limit with the Moonforce. Marco was trapped, holding onto dear life, trying to hold onto the last chunk of air available to him under the shrinking crystal. The box was still indestructible, immovable and I was unstoppable. But that did not mean stalemate or surrender.

Because I didn't have to play his game.

I raised my wand high, wielding the greatsword with both hands. This was the moment Toffee's smile disappeared off his face.

"_Blackest moon, come to me…"_ I began to chant, "_Brightest sun, give me strength._"

"What are you doing?" Toffee glared. "Do you want your human to die?"

"_Open the gate, render unto thee," _I continued, ignoring his warning. "_Destroy evil, show me the wavelength."_

"Stop this at once! The spell! Our deal!"

"Don't listen to him, Star. Do it!"

"_Give me the knowledge, show me the magic source. Grant me my wishes, by my will the Moonforce."_

A rambling of madness, and from madness came the chaos and the blinding light. A light of transcendence and oblivion. Transporting the three of us to higher planes. A place beyond thought and memory.

Because the very next thing I saw was the ceiling of my bedroom. My eyes blurred my mind, sheltering it from the numb senses and the ringing in my ears. I was barely strong enough to even let out a painful moan.

"Star!" My father King River cried out, "Thank heavens you're awake. How are you feeling, pumpkin?"

"What… what is going on?" I rubbed my eyes with my trembling hands. "Wh… why is my hand shaking? What time is it?"

"You've been out for three days, your highness," said the doctor by my bedside. "That was quite the blast you survived. It did a number on you. Under normal circumstances I would've recommended at least a whole week for a full recovery. But the Allmother wants you back as soon as possible. She's been at the site, containing the energy ever since."

"The site? Energy?"

"It's a long story."

The magic wand was indeed a complex machine. It showed me things that scrambled my brain extremely thoroughly, rearranging them in new unique patterns in order to absorb new knowledge. Most of which I had forgotten the moment my hand left the wand, the moment the cosmic magic left my mind. I didn't even remember what I wished for.

But the wand opened up portals. Portals to worlds beyond Mewni, beyond Earth. Forcing open space like a can of beans, in ways Hekapoo's scissors themselves could not even do. Scissors could cut paper, but a crowbar could pry open metal panels.

And here at the remains of what was once Castle Avarius – a field of gates. And before them all, Moon, Queen of Mewni, holding the fabric of space together from falling apart, channeling great magic through her body.

"Mother," I called out, approaching the field of gates.

"Star, dear. I hope your recovery is going well."

"I'll be fine. Just a little fatigued," I smiled.

But the Allmother sighed in disappointment:

"It is my fault. I shouldn't have lent you the power of the Moonforce. Forgive me, daughter, for my irrational judgement at the time. Toffee was an enemy of old, my enemy. And instead of facing him myself – I sent my offspring after him, with a power she could barely understand."

"Mother…"

"I was afraid, my child. Afraid to face my past, afraid that I might not be strong enough to shatter the immortal monster, and… afraid of what will be if it turns out I _was_ strong enough. I am truly sorry."

"I trust in you," I said. "You are the Allmother."

"But the victim is of Earthly origin, your companion, one Marco Diaz. Under normal circumstances I would send you back behind the walls of our castle where it is safe. But you have a stake in this, I'd imagine you would not want to sit back and do nothing while your friend is out there in mortal danger."

"No… I would not. Forgive me, Allmother, for I would rebel against your wishes if that were your command."

"I see."

I cleared my throat, anxious that I might've offended my mother. But sudden movements as minor as a mere slight cough was enough to reignite the pain in my shoulder, the shoulder being kept together by a tight arm cast.

"You were right, mother. I'm not ready for the power of the wand. I knew that before, but parts of me in Dream still felt… still felt if I was given the chance, I could do something with that power. Forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive. You have done no wrong, daughter of Mewni. Because it hardly matters now whether you're ready or not. It is not I, the Allmother, who asks of you to train and wield the wand. It is not the kingdom who asks of you to protect the land from invaders with the magic. No – this time, it is the multiverse that asks for a guardian. Ready or otherwise."

"Where is Toffee, mother?"

"Through one of these countless portals. Somewhere out there in the multiverse, alongside your friend. The two of them each entered a different portal. It falls upon you to find them before…"

"Before…" I raised my eyebrow.

"Before the multiverse dies."

* * *

**AN:** **This chapter covers the point of view of Prissy Princess Star of Bad Boy Marco Universe #6. Born from nobility and from the Allmother, she is on her way to discovering the vast cosmic powers of the universe.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: MonStar part 1**

There once were gods.

But before there were gods, there were monsters.

One of those monsters was me, Princess Star Butterfly. Daughter to Queen Moon Butterfly…

And King Toffee of Septarsis.

It was a union that was certainly… unorthodox. Our two races had been at war since basically the beginning of Mewni. Long ago, in a place infinitely smaller than the kingdom I stood on. In a time long before I could even walk or remember.

As princess, I was born into a life of luxury and wealth. Vaults after vaults of gold and corn, flowing endlessly with the fruits of this promised land.

This was a land rich with soil and corn, and the only reason we Mewmans even managed to wrest it from the grasps of the monsters was because of one thing – magic.

The land of monsters before we Mewmans arrived was a land teeming with savage barbarians and primitive tribes. What they needed then was unity and order. Though that was easier to see in retrospect, because all we brought them then was war and oppression.

Oppression that even I, daughter of a monster, could feel amongst my peers. The other Mewman princesses, our servants, our knights, our generals, they dared not speak ill of me, only because I was the princess. I knew of their distaste for me. Shunning me from their circles. Loneliness was my friend growing up, for I had no other.

I could only imagine what the monsters of the land felt, crushed under this massive weight.

It was said that absolute power would corrupt the minds of those who wielded it. And the royal magic wand was power unlike any other.

"What could the magic wand do, mother?" I asked as a child.

Her answer?

"Bring sorrow. Too heavy to bear."

I never truly understood what she meant. She was the queen of Mewni, the most powerful being in all the lands. Couldn't she just wish for a better life? A better union between Mewmans and monsters? Theoretically the wand should allow it, shouldn't it?

Perhaps, but the wand also granted its wielder more than just mere power. With enough focus, one could see the universe in motion. Understand things that could never be understood otherwise, even by the wisest person.

In that cosmic confusion and knowledge flood, one's decision making would become warped by the objective perspective granted by this device. Some queens even went mad, either with insanity or with power.

"I want to help," I told my mom. "Please, watching the conflict between our peoples, watching the oppression. I have to do something."

"I know sweetie. But it's not that simple. Some things are just too universal, too concrete, immovable. They exist in the fabric of reality out of necessity. Conflict, hate, war. I tried using the wand once, to wish those things out of existence."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well," mom simply shook her head. "Didn't work. The wand had… fail-safes. Many of them prevented the destruction of certain things. Certain things that exist as long as reality exists. As long as we can still Dream. It is the same everywhere, Woolandia, the Neverzone, our own kingdoms, and even Earth."

"No… it's… it's not possible."

"Unfortunately, it is."

"How? All of these realms are vastly different from our home. How could they possibly share the same flaws as we do?"

"Perhaps you need some hard evidence. To see them for yourself."

"Yes," I answered. "That… would be nice."

And the rest as they said, was history. I don't remember how our conversation went on from there. All that mattered was that mom agreed to a student exchange program. It was an exotic idea, rarely ever done. But apparently mom and dad had been talking about this for quite some time now, even before our conversation here.

I love my mom and dad, they were so thoughtful. For every minute was agonizing living here crushed under the great weight of those sneering and walking above me, walking above the monsters, the oppressed, the less fortunate than I. It tormented me. My peers' lack of respect for me, I could handle (barely). But to those without my wealth and status, to those who cried out every night in their nightmares trying to find comfort, only to find darkness and evil?

They needed the compassion more than I ever will.

Enter Marco Ubaldo Diaz, an ordinary earthling introduced to me when I arrived at Echo Creek Academy. A boy typical and common in every way.

And my best friend – for that exact reason.

He was ordinary, and he treated me as such. Not as a princess above the commoners, nor as an inferior race not deserving of respect. No – he treated me as a friend.

It was difficult to fit into Echo Creek when I first got here, I drew many eyes from all walks of life. The students, the teachers, the boys from the football team, the kids from the science labs. But none of them were impressed nor admiring, rather they were curious eyes, confused to what I was doing here, someone like me.

But Marco, he lent me a hand. Even though he himself did not understand what was going on at the time. He did so because of one very simple reason – compassion.

"I need to save my people, Marco," I said to him, looking out on this vast Earth. "I know with the magic wand I can do it. I can wish war and conflict out of existence."

"You really think you can do that?"

"I think so. If this world is anything to go by," I smiled. "If all the people here are as good and kind as you are, then it would prove my mom wrong. War is not universal. I can feel it."

"I…" Marco took a deep breath and sighed, "here's to a better universe."

His smile reassured me. But it did not take very long before I finally realized that smile was a lie, a beautiful lie. I never liked when people lied. Lies hurt, but people lied anyway, good people even. Because that was all good people had to get through this unjust world.

I remember my mom telling me bedtime stories when I was a kid. Great stories and epic poems of heroes fighting valiantly against evil, conquering the forces of darkness and those crooked villains lurking in the shadows. And at the end of every story, everything would come together for a final conclusion, ending it all with a 'happily ever after'. I could still remember vividly my mom's soothing voice, whispering beautiful Dreams into my ears, a lie, but so majestic and beautiful.

But stories and poems were not like the real world. Because the real world did not have an ending. It went on, everlasting. And it did not go on happily.

"I'm so sorry, Marco," I cried. "I shouldn't have gotten in the way. I know you like Jackie. And I messed up and now she's going to hate you forever and…"

"No, Star…" he gazed at me, not angry. Instead he was sad, "I'm the one who should apologize. I'm sorry I lied to you – about the world. Conflict… it exists here on Earth. What you just saw was proof of that. I just… I didn't want you to be disappointed, and leave, and to be disappointed again elsewhere. I… I… I didn't want you to leave."

"Marco… I…"

"STAR!" My mirror suddenly lit up, with static and a barely visible image, there my mom stood, "You need to come home right now. Mewni is in danger. They've taken your father, please come home now."

The transmission was cut off at that point. Leaving me here staring blankly at the silver mirror, and Marco in the back, unsure of what to do.

From that day forward, I began to believe in Fate. All the cosmic forces of the universe must have known somehow, known of this pain and struggle we both felt and align the stars in a way for the events and cosmic irony to play out in this way, as if I were part of this poem that was my life. It was far too wild to be a coincidence, but I could not explain it in ways normal people would understand.

Marco Diaz was my best friend. He was there for me when no one else would. He was kind to me in ways I could not even begin to repay. I did not want this to be the way we say goodbye. I did not even want to say goodbye in the first place. There was still so much to be done with him, I wanted to apologize, reconcile the situation between him and Jackie, show him my thanks for sticking by my side.

Instead the young boy grabbed my dimensional scissors, cut open a wide gash within the space in front of us, and swiftly pushed me into the black void where the portal closes briefly after, but not before he chucked the scissors through the portal after me with great force. He smiled with melancholy, whispering to me:

"I'm sorry. For everything. Go save your world. I know you can."

I didn't know if he was still mad at me. All I wanted to do was pay back for his kindness. Trouble was Marco wasn't the kind who would expect anything in return. He was a good soul – and why I believed in humanity, even when he didn't.

But things were different now that I was through the portal. Something was wrong. Space was twisted, perhaps time, too. I wondered how long I was away for. But the castle was not supposed to be on fire. The villages – empty. Where did everybody go? And then I heard the horns of war.

It was time for the marching of the troops once this earth-shaking sound echoed across the land. The warnicorns shall move forth into victory, and the knights shall brandish their swords, slashing away at their enemies.

But when I turned my head, that was not what I saw. Instead of swords and shields, I saw shackles and whips. Instead of spears and armors, I saw magic and the screams of slaves.

Monster slaves – my people. The Kappas, the Slimes, the Frog Men, every single one of them, chained and whipped onto the ground, helpless and crying out to the heavens.

And standing above the slaves was one powerful and cruel – Mina Loveberry.

She laughed on and on and on above the misery of these people. In her hand wielding the most powerful weapon in the universe – the magic wand.

Being conquered under the might of the magic wand would already be enough for a nightmare. But that was not what I felt then. I did not feel the horror of this mad tyrant, nor did I feel defeated by this crazed warrior. Instead the feeling within me at that moment was Betrayal.

Because by Mina's side was none other than my dad – King Toffee of Septarsis.

I roared towards the heaven, a monster's roar, demanding the answers of the forces on high:

"FATHER! What is the meaning of this? Explain yourself!"

He struck me a cold look, a look I did not recognize – a look of a villain. He did not even dare to look me straight in the eyes when he answered me:

"It is the oldest canons of the cosmos, daughter. Natural selection. The strong shall overwhelm the weak, and that is the way things are. This is the universe's judgement, so it is."

I was absolutely frozen in shock, my brain could not understand it. I tried to rationalize through math, logistics, there must've been a good reason for this Betrayal. Being coerced by great strength.

But my dad was not the kind to just give over willingly _especially_ to brute forces. Because his greatest strength was his immeasurable intellect. He knew things not even the Magic High Commission knew, and the Commission with their true forms were powerful pan-dimensional gods bigger than anything I could imagine.

But the cold eyes he gave me – it was as if he no longer considered me his daughter, and him my father.

"HA!" Mina cracked a smile, "you said it better than I ever could, brother. Now help me round up all these good folks and whip them up into shape now. Finally, sweet retribution will be mine at last, and the cleansing of the world can commence!"

"That will have to wait," King Toffee commanded.

"What?"

I looked up, just as my hope was about to die. I cried tears of defeat, of despair, confused by the Betrayal. And yet my dad's voice was soft and powerful.

"It is the oldest canons of the cosmos," he said. "You are strong, no doubt. But I shall stalemate your strength with my other gifts."

The king strode up onto the mad warlord and proceeded to grab unto the magic wand, the wand Mina was currently holding onto. Confused, Mina tried to shake his Septarian grasp off her.

"Did you think I would not have a fail-safe in case something like this were to happen?" My dad glared at Mina. "I have powers and knowledge far beyond your comprehension, Mewman warrior. You cannot triumph."

With furious madness, the crazed woman began focusing her scattered thoughts into the magic of the wand, firing powerful energy bolts onto my dad's torso. It blew through his chest like an arrow blowing through a thin sheet of paper. He groaned in pain, trying to keep the pain in as his skin regenerated, covering up the fresh wounds.

Mina fired again, over and over, each time with a different colored bolt of energy. She was angry, but clearly unfocused, panicking at the mighty grasp of the immortal monster towering above her.

My dad gritted his teeth, trying to work through the agony. But his voice was still echoing the might of monsters:

"Yield, Mewman warrior. I am beyond your strength. You are unskilled with this device. One cannot operate the wand by mere desire alone. Even if you wish me out of existence, behold!"

He held up his other hand, and to both Mina's and my surprise – it was missing a middle finger.

"This is my fail-safe," he chuckled. "Upon my death at your hand, I shall enter the wand – the magic dimension, and I shall destroy everything inside. Even then you must realize the folly of being empress with no empire."

"Get off!" Mina shouted, "Get your hands off, you filthy lizard."

And my dad, my king merely responded with his simplest most absolute command:

"No."

That voice sent shockwaves down both our spines, Mina and I. The monster slaves cheered on beneath the metal chains, roaring for their champion – their king. It was humbling I must admit, thinking he was a traitor. No doubt about it now, my father was a hero.

With his mighty sharp claws, my king violently wrested the wand from the mad tyrant. He held the artifact high up into the heavens, feeling it infinite energy pouring into his body. It was almost too much for him to bear, his grimace made it clear. Electric rainbow sparks engulfed his entire hand, with colors I was sure did not even exist.

"DAUGHTER!" My dad shouted in pain. "Come forth, receive your Fate!"

Thus, my king tossed the royal magic wand unto me, Princess Star, daughter of Butterfly. I caught it in the midst of my confusion, standing before my people with them staring in awe. Holding the wand in my hand – I felt its eternal river flooding into my veins. I was glad to be able to relieve my dad of the pain of infinity. Too bad now that the wand had started to show me knowledge, science, ideas, time, space, the infinite spectrum of chaos, everything.

The wand began to shift, turning the diamond shaped gems of absolute power into star shaped ones, shining in the colors of the Moon and monsters. It grew out a pair of wings, dark as the night, and a pair of horns, colored with passion. A diamond star, that was the form of my crystal. And its lustrous shine was as beautiful as any river carved by the power of imagination.

The overwhelming knowledge and power of the wand was heavy, but somehow manageable. I could not explain why or how, but all I knew then was that I was still sane.

"Wha… what do I do now?" I looked up to my dad.

"Cast a spell," he responded.

"Which spell?"

"Any spell!" He affirmed. "Your mother took care of it. Let the wand do the work."

"GUARDS, SEIZE HER!" Mina yelled. "Don't let her use the wand!"

Without hesitation, I focused my mortal thought onto the wand, and it instantly lit up brighter than a star – a celestial body. It was so easy. Almost too easy. Perhaps I did it wrong? I never did have many proper training sessions with the wand. I suspected my parents secretly planned out my life's schedule that way. I couldn't tell if I was supposed to concentrate briefly or pour all my willpower into the device.

Or perhaps the title of the most powerful weapon in the universe was not a myth, but literally very accurate. A device providing great magic with little to no effort.

The magic spoke to me with its cosmic tongue. In an instant faster than light, it engulfed my entire body in its divine light. The light sheltered me from the soldiers. I saw them approaching from afar, but once they got close, they could not bypass the barrier. Even with the sharpness of their steel and the might of their war machines, nothing.

The light bought me time, enough time for me to notice in the middle of the barrier surrounding me – a portal.

The portal spoke to me, an angelic voice echoing from the wand:

"_Fate beckons you, daughter of Mewni. Go forth unto the multiverse – it calls for a guardian. Go, and deliver your people out of injustice."_

It was a familiar voice. And I recognized it instantly.

"Mom?"

I panicked, breathing more rapidly within the confined space of the barrier. Trying to look back to where my dad stood only allowed me a blurry glimpse through the blinding light. I needed to know what he wanted me to do. I wanted to save my people, but how could I? The weapon was too powerful for me to handle. If mom and dad had wanted me to take care of this whole conflict with the wand, the wand wouldn't have given me a portal. But here we were. Standing at the doorstep of choice, facing tyranny and the imprisonment of freedom.

When I looked to my dad, all he did was raise his hand, showing me the missing finger. And in the end whispered to me from the vast distance. The wand had complex mechanisms, allowing me to see far away and read his lips:

"Trust in your queen, daughter. Trust in _my_ queen. Go save our people. I shall wait for the good news."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Quasar Caterpillar part 1**

There once were gods.

But before there were gods, there were mortals.

I never believed in gods. I was a woman of science. The supernatural were only the natural that could not be properly understood. Luckily for me I understood many things. For I had learned much as a child growing up in the prosperous City of Inwem.

Inwem was a powerful hub for all manner of creatures across the universe. They all came here with a purpose. Some looked for shelter within the massive walls of the city and its army, others looked for work, for opportunities within the large factories mining light out of the earth. These were good people, honest folks.

But I had seen my fair share of crooks, too. Tricksters and grifters. People who aimed to swindle good people out of their honest work. My mother, President Luna Caterpillar had always hoped to one day clean up the streets of Inwem from the thieves and dishonest aliens of outer realms. Her programs were incredibly efficient, but they couldn't clean up everything.

I too hoped one day to be able to help my mother in her endeavors. It was a noble goal, one to advance our civilization to a new age towards the Stars. I too shared such a Dream. For this world was one full of technological marvels, sciences of a modern world willing to look and perhaps even travel to the future beyond.

Flying vehicles? Check. Pocket-sized supercomputers? Check. An artificial intelligence looking over the city with its vast network of services and defenses? I helped designed a lot of these for crying out loud.

I never believed in gods, because if gods existed, they would be from Inwem.

"But what about me?" Indexia asked. "Am I not a god?"

To which I responded:

"No. You're just one with great knowledge. Like me."

"Arrogant words, I see."

"More like confident."

I had no need to play god, I knew I could create life if I so wished. Skackie, the robot companion to Shmarmo, my best friend, was proof of that.

"You did what, now?" Indexia muttered, almost shocked this time.

"He didn't have a date to go to the dance, so I figured I'd do something about it, you know?"

"Why go through the trouble? Why not just go with him?"

"I'm his best friend, not his date," I said. "Besides, I have work to do. You remember Ludo?"

"The bird man thing? The one you sent through that portal at that graveyard?" Indexia scratched her chin, "Nope. Never heard of him."

"Well, I've been digging around as of late," I said as I pulled up some files on the computer screen. "And apparently it turns out he's not from around here."

"Oh?"

"No birth records, no identifications, no bank account, no signature, nothing. Reports claimed he appeared out of nowhere. Perhaps through a portal? But I assume you already knew all that."

"Don't know what you're talking about."

I grunted at her snark. But this was a common daily occurrence, no use in dwelling on it. That woman was as unhelpful as a door without a doorknob. Constantly hoarding knowledge to herself.

"Anyway," I continued. "Is it possible that he may have traveled here from another dimension? But where?"

"Why do you even care?"

"Because this is a foreign object entering Inwem," I explained. "What if this is the beginning of an invasion? You know I can't let that happen."

"Well, it is a vast cosmos after all, with vast possibilities."

"Hmm… you're right. We cannot rule out the possibility he may have come across a pair of dimensional scissors somewhere. Hekapoo has always been careless, or crafty."

"Forgive my daughter." Indexia said. "There is no end to her creativity."

"It doesn't matter, I suppose. I'll be investigating this regardless. Can't let any stones un…"

A violent spatial storm instantly cut my thoughts off, flinging my body right across the room onto the metal walls. It was quick, too quick for me to react. I should've had my bell on me, maybe I could've defended myself then. But truth be told the shock was more overwhelming than the pain, which was minimal.

There before me, glowing bright as crystals, a portal swirling in a pool of powerful magic. Its glimmer was mesmerizing. Hiding secret knowledge waiting to be snatched by the perfect opportunist. I could feel it taunting me from the other side.

"That looks like trouble," said Indexia. "I advise against it."

"I know… but this portal… maybe – it has answers." A small fascinated spark gradually formed within my hungry eyes, "Sorry, Indexia. I will not follow your orders."

"Not an order, but a guide. You'll die otherwise."

I responded with a sharp smirk:

"Only if I choose so."

I called the magic bell onto me, the golden machine soared through the air and straight to my palm. It was a complex device, but it was all I needed for this journey. With it, I could push beyond infinity. And here was the portal that invited me to take that step.

The light was bright, and the warmth of the magic overwhelmed my senses, but the golden bell protected me with its glow and glorious ringing. It deafened me, but it was soothing somehow. And before I knew it, I was already on the other side, my eyes flinging wide open to a strange place I had never seen before.

Before me was a wall. Made of some kind of strange glimmering stone, sturdy as concrete, and yet shimmering as the brightest of gems. It felt smooth to the touch, warm and cold at the same time somehow. Burning my fingers for a brief split second before freezing them to absolute zero. Then afterwards cooling down to a bearable degree. I felt no pain, no need to flinch.

The wall stretched out beyond both to my left and my right. So far into the horizon I could not make out where this snake was stretching out to. The height this structure reached to was just barely far above the reach of my jump, preventing me to look over the other side. Oddly specific, as if purposefully built in a way no Inwemese could cross over in one mere leap.

No matter. With my wand here I could accomplish many things. This shall be one of them.

"Levidado!"

I rang my bell, standing there waiting for the spell to levitate me over the other side.

But to my surprise the bell did nothing.

"What the…"

I shook the bell thoroughly, checking its integrity and power. I could've sworn I charged the battery before I got here.

"Levidado!" I repeated once more.

And still the result was the same. Nothing.

"What's wrong with this thing?"

I took the battery crystal off the bottom of the handle to inspect it closely. For some unexplained reason the energy crystal appeared dead. The juice seemed to still be inside when I shook it, but no glimmer or energy seemed to be coming out of it.

Great. What now? Without the bell, there was no way I could make that jump.

But perhaps I could dig my way under and to the other side. The only problem was the ground seemed to be made out of the same material as the wall, sturdy and possibly indestructible.

Invincibility was not something our Inwem science could achieve, not yet anyway. But I firmly believed that nothing in this universe was truly invincible, everything had a weakness. I could find it if I had my tools or my bell. Problem was I had neither.

And I sure wasn't going to find them standing around here. This wall could not possibly be infinite in length. There must be a gate around here somewhere, and I was determined to find it.

My firm beliefs were tested however, the stone wanted to see if my will were as sturdy as it was. Because the longer I walked on, the more the wall seemed to just keep on stretching. This was a strange wall, its purpose evaded me. Not to mention the fact I could faintly hear a sound of a train on the other side when I put my ears up against it. The sound got fainter the more I tried to listen in, to the point I wasn't even sure if it really was a train or something else entirely.

The wall tested me, wanting me to doubt my instincts. The question was who built this wall, and why did they want to test me? Could this be the source to those foreign invading forces I theorized just moments ago? I must investigate the matter to its end.

But this wall seemed to have no end, even though logically speaking it must have and end. It confused me. But perhaps it was just the weary eyes and shaking legs talking. I had lost track of time long ago, dwelling in my inner thoughts and theories.

Something felt off, however. I had walked for longer than this in the past, much longer. My dad had always praised me for my incredible stamina. Why did I get tired so quickly here? Could that much time had passed on already? Impossible.

And yet the wall kept on stretching, and I kept on walking. Soon I would be able to see Dream, then my own death. Why Dream, I wondered. And who was Dream? My weary eyes saw things, things my brain knew was not really there, and yet they still felt so real. Blurring the line between Dream and reality.

"Hey, you there!"

A voice suddenly burst into my ears. I spun my head and saw a young girl, no older than I was. She wore a simple but clean blue dress with a bow strapped around her waist. Her silky blond hair was tied back into a neat little red bow, complimented by big lustrous pearl earrings placed elegantly by the side.

She seemed familiar somehow, but I could not for the life of me put my finger on it. Her shining sea blue eyes were as bright as any star. And her cheek marks – marks of pink hearts. Why did she have cheek marks? Just like me, but mine were that of a planet and its ring. They were different, and yet so painfully familiar.

"Why are you walking in a circle there? Who are you?" The girl asked me.

"What?" I looked down at my feet, and sure enough she was right. From the dirt tracks and footprints, I realized that I really was just pacing back and forth. But how? I was walking along the wall this whole time, or at least I thought I was.

"What's your name?" She asked me.

"Oh… um… I'm Quasar. Quasar Caterpillar."

"Huh… okay… well I'm princess Star Butterfly. You seem… familiar, somehow."

"That's what I was thinking. Have we met before?"

"I don't know. Possibly?" She shrugged.

"Well, it doesn't matter, I guess. Because boy, am I glad to see another person around here. What is this place? Do you know it?"

"I was about to ask you," Star said. "I thought you knew."

"Nope, I just got here."

"Huh, me too. Very peculiar."

"So what are you doing here, Star?"

"Personal business, I'm afraid. I'm looking for someone, an enemy. He took something valuable of mine, and I intend to follow him. His trails led me here to this place, though. Which I struggle to understand."

"Really now? I'm on a personal quest, too. Funny coincidence, isn't it? Recently my home city has been invaded by a foreign force. I want to know where it came from, and whether it is dangerous or not. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you? Are you the one who built this wall? The source of this foreign object?"

"How could I?" Star tilted her head. "I just got here, like you."

"Right, fair point. Forgot about that."

"Wait," Star suddenly glanced down my right hand, where I held my bell, "you have a magic wand, too?"

"Huh, oh this?" I held up the golden machine, "Oh no, it's not a wand. It's a bell. I ring it, and it creates an energy field that allows me to transmute matter from one form to another, allowing me to do various things whether for utility purposes or for combat. It is a powerful device, with its own complex computer system inside."

"Oh, so a magic wand."

"I… um…"

"Well, guess what? I have one, too. Take a look."

The girl held up a similar looking object for me to see, to my surprise. The shape of the object was similar to that of my own, but that was where the similarity ended, for this so-called 'wand' was pink in color, with various accessories attached to the sides. Such as two bird wings, a golden crown on top, and a shimmering gem piece carved in the shape of a star secured tightly in the center. I wondered then what the cogs inside this peculiar machine looked like, how it functioned.

"It doesn't seem to work anymore, I'm afraid," said Star, shaking the wand. "See? No spells, no nothing. I would've launched myself over the wall long ago if it wasn't for whatever is messing with my magic."

"Strange. Same thing here," I told her. "Battery's dead. I could've sworn I charged it. But something is off about this place. And it's this wall here, I'm sure."

"Maybe it's negating our wands somehow?"

"Maybe."

"There doesn't seem to be a door anywhere on either side of the wall," Star said, looking back. "I've been walking for an awfully long time, nothing."

"There's no way it could be infinite, no use standing around here, we have to…"

"_Um, excuse me."_

Another voice echoed behind me, cutting me off. I spun my head once more and the shock that bolted through me was immense. There another girl approached me, and she was the spitting image of the girl Star I just met. A clone perhaps? But how? And where?

Her complexion was a strange tone of grey blue, hiding beneath her long flowing sky-blue hair. She wore a simple skirt of green and sleeveless shirt of black, and behind her I could see a tail of a lizard – her tail. It sure did go well together with her headband, though, a headband of horns. And those fangs, quite sharp ones I must say.

Just like me and Star, she too had cheek marks. Marks of hearts, but these were darker in color than Star's. She looked too familiar, but for different reasons than the last.

"Hi," the girl spoke shyly, "my name is Star Butterfly. I come from a land far away. I was hoping if you guys know a way over this wall here."

The two of us stood in shock once hearing her name. Another Star? Not possible!

"I'm sorry," the Star behind me rubbed her head, "I don't think I heard you right. Did you say your name is Star Butterfly?"

"Yes?"

"No, that's not possible. I'm Star Butterfly."

"No way. Oh corn, are you my long-lost twin sister?"

"I doubt it," I said.

"Oh, but that doesn't make sense, my dad would've told me about a sister if that were the case. And you don't look anything like my dad either."

"Who… is your father?" Star asked, suddenly getting more serious.

"Huh? Oh, King Toffee of Septarsis. Why do you ask?"

Just like that, at the snap of a finger, a hidden rage burst forth from the blonde's eyes. It seemed uncontrollable and hungry for some retribution that I could not understand, for I did not know her story. The girl clenched her wand tight, and pointed at the lizard girl, even though she knew the device had no power.

"Toffee – took my best friend," she grunted. "And here you are, standing before me, a disciple of that evil monster? The gall!"

"What no! You have it all wrong. My dad isn't evil. He is a kind noble hero. He's the reason I'm even here at all, alive and breathing."

"You lie, monster girl!" Star shouted. "My father is not a monster. He is the noble King River Butterfly, husband to the Mighty Allmother! The Allmother demands the trial of our kingdom's greatest enemy, Toffee of Septarsis. A vile monster who murdered our previous Allmother."

"That doesn't make sense. How could that be? My dad isn't anything like you just said!"

And the answer struck me with its furious thunderbolt of arcane knowledge. Of course! It was right there in front of me the whole time. How could I not see it? I studied the science of this phenomenon my whole life, and yet did not realize it the moment I met this girl.

"It's all so clear now," I slapped my forehead, getting the two Stars their attention, "don't you guys see? It's the multiverse."

As the sensation of shock gradually crept up their faces, I was prepared to take in one deep breath to explain to them the vast intricacies of the various sciences I had learned long ago of the quantum theories.

And yet, instead of questions, the two of them just turned to look at each other, eyes wide in wonder and confusion. Not because they did not understand what I meant.

"It's not possible," Princess Star said. "I mean… it's not a myth?"

"Um… I… no…" I said. "We are the proof of it. It's got to be, I'm sure of it. Ah, no wonder why I found you two so familiar. I thought I have seen you somewhere before in my life, perhaps even distant family or something. But you're me! Both of you, literally speaking. Alternate versions of me, sure, but there's no doubt about it."

"A multiverse…" Princess Star took one step back, "I don't believe it."

"It must be," the lizard girl insisted, almost brought to tears. "See, look! I even have a wand. Just like you. What I said is the truth."

She held up her blue wand, and just as she said it, it was a magic wand with a diamond piece in the shape of a star placed at the very center. Two black bat wings and a pair of horns. There was no denying it. It was the truth.

Princess Star took one deep breath, then gave perhaps what seemed to be the longest sigh I had ever heard.

"You must forgive me," she said. "I just find it… difficult. This monster girl. This… MonStar…"

The lizard girl's eyes twitched ever so slightly, it was hard to spot, but I noticed. She did not take kindly to that name, surely. And yet she closed her eyes, taking in one deep breath just as Princess Star did. And when those eyes opened – they were filled with nothing but compassion.

"My father was part of a race of monsters," she said. "But make no mistake, I understand your pain. I too have lost something dear to my heart. Many things in fact. That is why I am here. He sent me here, my father. To safety by orders of my mother, the queen, Moon Butterfly. He sent me out of bondage, and out of death. It is the fates I wish my people could also avoid."

Princess Star glanced up to the monster girl, scanning her thoroughly, looking for any sign she might be telling a lie, a fabricated story. But I knew she could find nothing but sincerity. The girl nodded her head, but in the end – I suspected she was not completely over those feelings of anger, not yet.

"So…" the blonde said. "What now? What do we do with this wall here? A wall so wide we cannot get around it, and so deep in the stone I doubt we can dig under it."

"I have a feeling that the wall will increase in height if we were to try to climb it," said MonStar.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Call it a hunch," she said. "Magic is a peculiar thing. It's difficult to explain. It is a pathway to impossible abilities and knowledge."

"Magic is merely science people do not yet understand," I commented. "Fortunately, I understand many things."

"Oh?"

"It's clearly a super structure of some kind," I told them. "Perhaps meant to be a scientific experiment of sort, with the wall here being the maze, and we the mice. Someone must be manipulating the wall to stretch out beyond our fields of vision via a complex system of gears turning from within. But only beyond our fields of vision, only to make it look like the wall is infinite, when it is not."

"How do you know that?"

"Think about it," I explained. "There are finite resources in the universe, hence one cannot possibly hope to build something infinite in length, height or volume. So the next best thing is to create the illusion of infinity."

"Hmm, I guess we can't rule out the possibility," said Princess Star.

"I even managed to hear a moving train over the other side of the wall," I said. "It's faint, and difficult to make out, but the sound is there I assure you. If only my magic bell is not out of juice. I could confirm my hypothesis by asking the bell itself. It has never steered me wrong."

"But you're not being steered by the bell here, no?" Said Princess Star.

"Pardon?"

"She's right," MonStar joined in. "There are other possibilities. We do not know what this is nor where we are. We all stepped through a portal each did we not? We are far from our home realm. Our magics do not work here. Why is that do you reckon?"

"Perhaps because of the multiverse?" I wondered.

"Maybe our wands only function within their home universe," Princess Star theorized. "The Allmother told me once of a place called the magic dimension. A realm where my magic wand draws power from. She said it was a realm that encompasses the universe. But she never mentioned anything of the multiverse."

"It's possible," said MonStar, glancing down her own wand. "When I left my home universe, I felt my wand's life force leaving this shell. You see, my dad, he planted a fail-safe in cases of emergency, to make sure that if this were to ever fall into the wrong hands, hands of villains, then they would not be able to enjoy the gifts of this weapon. I thought he went through with it, until I met you guys. Now I am uncertain. Perhaps he still has faith in me, faith that I will accomplish my mission, then in the end, to return to a world where the magic has survived the fail-safe."

"Then what do we do now?" Princess Star wondered.

"What _can_ we do?" I said.

"Maybe…" Princess Star began tapping her chin, before shaking her head, "no, that won't do."

"What?" I pursued. "Do you have an idea? There are no bad ideas here. Come on, let's hear it."

"Well… I have this thing," she said. "It's hard to explain. It's called the Moonforce."

"What's that?" I asked.

"I've never heard of it before," MonStar commented.

"Well, it's…" Princess Star scratched her head. "I… don't actually know what it is exactly. But it's not magic. I can't say for sure. It's a mysterious energy my Allmother wields. Its power – enigmatic, but its reach – beyond infinite."

"How is that possible?" I asked.

"I don't know," she answered. "All I know is that she is the Allmother for a reason, and the Moonforce is one of those reasons. Before I left for my journey across the cosmos, she granted me a small fraction of her infinite power. As in, a drop of water compared to the mighty ocean. The powers, I tell you – is unlike anything I've ever felt. It lets me do many things, many absurd, impossible things. It might even be able to knock down this wall here."

"Wow."

"Sounds a bit farfetched if you ask me," I commented.

"How come my mom doesn't have the Moonforce?" MonStar wondered. "She is also Queen Moon, is she not?"

"Like I said," Princess Star shrugged, "I myself do not know a whole lot about this power. Only the Allmother knows. I assume it all just comes down to the difference in our universes, the difference in the timelines. From where I come from, my mother is first and foremost the Allmother, she is queen second, and a mother third."

MonStar nodded, perhaps feeling empathy for a potential difficult childhood. Princess Star continued:

"There is only one problem with using the Moonforce, though. And that is the simple fact that I am not ready for such power. The Moonforce, the magic wand, they show me things, things I could never see, not on my own. Power, but more importantly knowledge. Its power is overwhelming. The last time I used it I almost went mad. It took me a while to fully recover, but the damage has been done."

"So that's it then?" I asked. "We are out of options? Is that it?"

"Not necessarily," MonStar chimed in. "I think we need to look at this problem from a different perspective. One not concerning with raw power, but instead belief."

"I don't follow," said Princess Star.

"Think about it," she explained, "the wands give us power, but what is the force that directs that power? What gives it instructions?"

"Our will?" I said.

"Exactly!" MonStar snapped her finger, "This device is one of, if not the most powerful weapon in the universe. A device capable of shaping thoughts, molding Dreams into reality. But only if it is instructed to do so, willed to do so."

"So, what? We just need to believe hard enough and the wall will give us a door?" I said, "Doesn't sound very scientific."

"Mayhap not," said Princess Star, pondering. "But it is worth a shot, is it not? A way for us to truly prove ourselves, prove to the world, nay, the universe that we are worthy to wield the power cosmic magic. It is a big responsibility. My Allmo… my mother said to me some final words before I left, she said that it is not her, the Allmother who asks of me to journey ahead, it is not my kingdom that asks of me to wield the wand and protect our borders, no – it is the multiverse itself which asks of me its guardian. Maybe this is a sign, us three, meeting here of all places, in such a time."

"A coincidence?" I asked.

"Maybe," said MonStar. "I may have believed it so once upon a time. But now – I believe in Fate."

CONGRATULATION.

A deep rumbling voice shook from the wall, shaking from all sides. It forced me to ready myself with a combat stance, wielding the empty magic bell. For it was in my nature to be prepared, be vigilant. Before of course, I realized how ineffective that would be.

But the wall's nature was peculiar. Once indestructible stone made from shimmering light now morphed its form into a liquid of sort, strange liquid, nothing like anything I had ever seen before. Certainly not something on the periodic table. Nothing I had seen on Inwem, and for good reasons. Because behind the liquid of the wall hid the essence of new cosmic secrets. For now I had finally realized that the knowledge of this foreign new world was not taunting me at all. This was an invitation. And I could not even begin to describe the immeasurable honor I felt at that very moment.

Behind the wall was a stairway, infinite in length, with divine light shining so bright I was forced to shield my eyes. In the distance I could barely make out a vast hall full of machinery, equipment and forges so alien and bizarre to my eyes. The furnace of distant fire, the anvils of celestial stars, but most impressive were the smiths, wearing peculiar aprons and armors of alien symbols I did not recognize. They were big, bigger than any Inwemese in my lifetime, double the size easily. But their impressive size paled in comparison to the wonder of what they were – unicorns.

With great strength, they stepped down from their sturdy marble stairs, and greeted us into their majestic heavenly realm:

"Welcome – to the Magic Source."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Prissy Princess Star part 2**

The Allmother once told me of this particular cosmic race. Giant Unicorns – they looked even bigger than how the murals and paintings depicted them. It was said that beyond the universe was a place housing the power and essence of the millhorses in the royal magic wand, the source of the magic, if you will.

As far as I was aware, millhorses were small, and didn't really talk much. They performed their duties and powered the wand. But the legends spoke of Giant Unicorns, standing on two legs with massive hands, incredibly powerful and larger than your average golem. They were crafters, smiths, artists, creators, possessing various exotic powers aiding them in creation. What exactly they created was a little unclear.

Ancient scripture differed depending on the sources. Some said the millhorses were the children of Unicorns. Others said the millhorses were created by them, in the same way a toymaker would make a toy. Then there were other texts which suggested that millhorses were avatars of the Giant Unicorns themselves, aspects of their essence and selves given physical form, sent down to serve the magic wand.

To be in the presence of the legends, and to be welcomed into their kingdom? I could not believe it. This must be of Dream, sleepless Dream I was not aware of. Was it possible to tell the difference? What hidden wisdom was required to comprehend?

"Welcome, children," one of the Unicorns stepped off from these heavenly stairs, greeting us three. "My name is Metallic Metal of the Grandiose Arming Blade. Quite the mouthful I realize, but you can just call me Metal."

The Giant was easily twice the height of the Allmother, three times even, it was difficult to tell because of how bright the Magic Source was. He wore a peculiar thick leather apron with a bizarre texture that seemed to shift depending on the angle you were looking at. Some parts looked like shining stars, other looks like fiery stones. In his massive hand was a thick iron chisel with surface smooth as silver, and bright as gems. I shivered thinking of how heavy the object looked when wielded by this monstrously muscular being of great strength.

"We've been expecting you, Star Butterflys," said Metal. "Come in, come in."

There were many Unicorns all around, hundreds easily through this vast hall. Not all of them wore an apron as Metal did, however. There were many who actually wore suits, fancy black suits with a tie and shiny shoes and everything. Then on the other side there were Unicorns wearing jumpsuits and lab coats of some kind, scientists? Engineers? It was difficult to tell. My eyes were still adjusting to the brightness of this realm.

"What is this place?" Quasar asked as we walked up the stairs, "Where are we?"

Metal answered with a chuckle:

"You enter the sixth dimension, dear Quasar. An infinite distance above your three-dimensional universes. The wall you saw behind you is the wall that guards the inner space of the fifth dimension. It is a wall infinite in length, width and volume."

"Impossible," Quasar uttered.

"Yes, it does seem so at first, doesn't it?" Metal grinned. "But these halls are vast, and we Giant Unicorns are numerous. What you see before you is truth. You heard the roaring of the train engine from behind the wall, I assume. That is the massive structure of the Infinity Train. The snake spans the multiverse itself, it is very big, you would not be able to comprehend it. It is truth, and infinite."

"By corn, I've only heard of this place in stories and fairy tales," said MonStar. "This place… it's real. I don't believe it."

"Tell us, Metal man," I called upon the Giant, "for what purpose did you bring us here for? And why us three?"

"Well you see," Metal laughed, "I myself do not know the answer to that."

"What?"

"The multiverse works in mysterious ways I'm afraid," he said. "By the decree of the forces you were to be brought here. I was skeptical at first, but I sensed early on that you are not an enemy to the Magic Source. Well, these three versions of you anyway. That is the reason why my brothers and I decided to open the wall for you three. Only Fate herself knows the true reason you three are called upon here. Behold!"

The Giant led us to a massive pool of bright golden liquid. It was boiling with massive heat, not an unbearable burning sensation, but soothing and healing to the damaged soul. The sea of energy was boundless, dripping down to a colossal waterfall into a depth no mortal could see or imagine. I was half tempted to shout below into the endless pit to test its echo, but I must remain focus.

"See how the golden pool steams with its sparkling bubble?" Metal pointed, "Those are universes."

"Pardon?" Quasar turned her head.

"The Magic Source, our home," Metal explained, "is the source to all universes' magic dimension. It is a fundamental source of life itself, hence cannot be destroyed without massive world changing consequences – such as the removal of reality itself."

"Whoa."

"The magic of each individual universe may be quote unquote destroyed with sufficient methodology," Metal continued. "But once that happens, that universe's magic will simply return here, to the Magic Source, awaiting to be transferred to a new universe."

The Giant dipped his heavy hand into the magic, and the sight of the gold liquid dripping through his fingers was absolutely mesmerizing. No less beautiful than the most gorgeous painting or the most compelling film.

"There," he said, pointing at one of the bubbles, "I can see your home, Universe SVT1435"

And sure enough, he was right. I really did see my home, my kingdom, my castle – my family. There my father sat in solemn contemplation, alone in his throne as the shadow engulfed him. He sat there still bemused, puzzling over the amount of portals that had opened up in our home, the portals that my mother was still attempting to control. I wanted to reach out to them, somehow telling them through the bubble that I was okay. But logic dictated that it would be a fruitless attempt.

"Go ahead children, dip your wand into the pool of magic. It shall transform your wand, strengthen it. Connect it to the multiverse – so that you may use the magic wand even outside of your home universe."

"Wait, really?" MonStar lit up excitedly.

"Indeed," Metal smiled. "You'll be drawing your power from the source after all, which exists above the traditional three-dimensional universes."

"I'm sorry, I just find all this very hard to believe," Quasar threw her hands up in the air.

"What's wrong, child?" Metal asked.

"This, all this," she gestured towards the whole hall, "it's just… impossible, you know? I hesitate to call this unscientific, because surely I can accept that there are laws of the universe I have yet to comprehend. Fair enough, that I might accept. But what I still do not understand is why we are here. Why us three? Three different versions of ourselves all here at this place and this time. If you Unicorns did not open the portals and called us to the wall, then who did?"

"Well, a lot of things _have_ been out of sync as of late," Metal scratched his head. "Things within the multiverse that do not add up. Things that no longer follow their nature, their laws and instead divert into different paths. Dwelling deep into the spectrum of chaos. We have been dealing with a lot of problems within the forge. A rogue Giant, you see. He causes problems for me and my brothers, and now he is out there scrambling the multiverse, disassembling timelines. Apparently, he made a deal with a demonic force on high, a lizard."

"A lizard?" I raised my eyebrow, clenching my fist, "Do you happen to know of the lizard's name?"

"No, I'm afraid," said Metal. "I doubt he has a name. But he is cunning and cruel, incredibly intelligent and very dangerous."

Could this be?

I turned to my fellow Stars, and said to them:

"This might be it, didn't you hear? The lizard – Toffee. If I pursue this path, I might be able to catch up to him and find Marco."

"He took Marco?" MonStar gasped.

"Yeah," I replied, "that's why I'm here."

"With all due respect, princess," Quasar folded her arms. "I am not here for other people's wild goose chase, thank you very much. In case you forgot, I have my own mission to accomplish."

"Your own wild goose chase?" I asked.

"Yes, I mean, no," she shook her head. "I mean… maybe. But it's important regardless. I can't let any stones unturned. If there is a foreign force plotting to invade my city then I have to know."

"But don't you see?" I pointed towards the bubbles, "The universes are out of sync. The three of us are here for a reason. It cannot be a mere coincidence. It MUST be connected somehow. By finding the lizard, we might be able to solve your problem, too."

"As much as I like to go home as well," said MonStar, "I'm afraid I have to agree with Star here."

"I don't follow," said Quasar.

"What I seek – is power," MonStar explained. "But more importantly answers. Why did my parents send me here? For what purpose? And how could it possibly help save my people? The fact that I am here at all means that despite the magic wand's nigh infinite power… I cannot use it to save everyone back home. If it could do such a thing, my mother wouldn't have sent me here."

"We are dealing with forces we do not know anything of," said Quasar. "It may be dangerous. No, scratch that, it WILL be dangerous."

"But we have the wand here," I said. "The wands, they shall be dipped in this pool of multiversal power. We will be unstoppable. What could possibly stand up to that?"

"The fact we do not know what could stop us is exactly why we need to be cautious," said Quasar. "Just because we do not know of anyone capable of defeating the full might of the wand, does not mean that person does not exist. Or have you forgotten about your own mother? The one you call Allmother."

"No… no, I have not," I said.

"The wand CAN be beaten," Quasar continued. "The three of us standing here instead of in our respective homes is proof of that."

"Be vigilant, yes," I nodded my head, "but retreat?"

Quasar fell silent, scanning my thoughts through my eyes carefully. I understood her cautious nature, I could relate. But this matter was too urgent to just drop it like a rock. We must push forward, no matter the obstacles before us.

"Um, guys… why is this bubble here glowing red?" MonStar tapped my shoulder with her tail.

And sure enough, one of the golden bubbles in the pool was beeping with red lights as if it was alarming us of something. In the end, it wasn't too far off from the truth.

"It signals an impending danger to this universe," Metal pointed at the bubble. "You must do something, for we Unicorns are not allowed to leave our home realm. Jump into the bubble, jump into the universe."

"Which universe is this?" Quasar asked.

Metal squinted his eyes, looking at something I could not see:

"Universe SVT63."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Star 63 part 1**

There once were gods.

But before there were gods, there were stars.

Shining luminously and infinitely in the distant skies. So many I could never count them all, believe me, I tried. The stars looked over us, blessed us with its light, I thanked them for their sheltering sparks. The sparks of magic that gave me power, protect me from the forces of Evil.

But now all of it must come to an end, the good and the bad. I must thank them one last time then let them rest. For I shall rest with them, too. Here in the magic dimension, in our last moments in each other's arms, the one I truly love – Marco Diaz.

"Because with or without magic," I said, holding him tight.

"We belong together," he embraced me, letting me feel the warmth of his heart.

But the spark of his warmth and the glow of the cheek marks were completely snuffed out by something unexpected. A shift in the density of the air, flowing along the crashing waves of the dead liquid magic, the atmosphere started to become harder to breathe. There in the distant sky beyond the waterfalls, a crackle burst open a massive hole. A portal? But how? The magic dimension was dying, it should not be possible. I had the black goo of dead magic right here in the palm of my hands. We were sitting in the thing, too, all falling apart.

But from the portal came a giant, more specifically – a Giant Unicorn.

A mighty unicorn who looked entirely different from the First Born and the purple unicorn. Standing on two legs, he stood tall, strong as a mountain. His body held together by muscle fibers made of stones, infused by boiling magma veins, then further scarred by carvings of some kind. Cave carvings? It wasn't entirely clear from where I was.

I sat there, beholding the strength in his belly and the toughness of the iron horn. Horn of a beast who stared down with its shimmering eyes, marked by scars of impossible shapes over his face, as if placed there as tattoos, marks of his divine strength.

The Giant was big, bigger than a Solarian warrior by far, twice as big perhaps. The single pauldron he wore could easily dwarf a small building, and the golden belt strapped around his waist was heavy, perhaps impossible for even ten men to wrap their arms around.

And there was his voice, a voice of angelic mighty sound. Or perhaps it was that of a demonic force from on high. A shining echoing voice, but it forced the realm trembling, shaking the fabric of the black goo themselves.

"TREMBLE BEFORE ME!" He roared, "FOR THIS DAY, I SHALL BE YOUR JUDGE AND EXECUTIONER."

"Star? What's going on?"

"I… I don't know!"

"MEWNI AND EARTH, FOR YOUR INNUMERABLE SINS AGAINST THE COSMOS, I SENTENCE YOU TO DEATH OF INFINTE PROPORTION. THIS UNIVERSE IS OUT OF BALANCE, THINGS THAT SHOULD NOT BE HAS BEEN SO. THINGS THAT NEED CORRECTING SHALL BE CORRECTED. YOUR RECKONING IS UPON YOU. NOW FEEL THE WRATH OF MY MAGIC BLADE!"

Another crackle! Bursting open with bright blinding sparkle from afar, the color of golden living magic in a space of dying ones – another portal.

I sat there in the midst of the goo expecting another Giant to step out from the void, for what purpose I dared not guess. To battle this beast and deliver us from his sentence? To perhaps be a witness to this court that came to be without notice? Or worse, to join him in the blade, to deliver us to the death they deemed us deserving?

But no.

Instead of Giants, I saw wings.

Wings of angels eternally flapping in the glory of the light. They blinded me, I could not make out the details, but they seemed familiar.

Three shadows stepped down from this light. I thought them agents of gods, but I was wrong.

They were gods themselves.

Mighty celestial bodies, all three of them, in their hands mighty war swords, sharp steel ready to strike through the darkness of any kind, be it physical or otherwise. The swords glowed bright of emerald flashes and azure glitter, flashing me with this view of titans the legends and myths of old once told. The sky was their home, and now they would descend unto this mortal plane.

Except…

They weren't titans. When the light of the swords cleared, I could see them clearer than ever. To my eternal shock they were no older than I was. A cosmic truth which revealed to me why they seemed so familiar.

They WERE me.

One with long blond hair tied together with a neat red bow. Another with long silver hair and skin of a monster. And one wearing a peculiar space helmet of spatial blue.

Sure, some of their facial features and what they were wearing were different. But there was no doubt about it. The molds that made them who they were, the basic structures and atoms, it was like looking right into a mirror, three mirrors.

The wings I thought of as angel wings weren't wings at all. Instead, they were capes, purple capes shining of pink sparkling dots. They looked similar to the cape I had with Marco. But here they felt different, I could not put my finger on what it was.

"Halt your blade, rogue Giant," the blonde demanded. To my absolute shock – in her hand she wielded a royal magic wand. But how?

"WHO ARE YOU, STRANGERS?" Said the Unicorn as he materialized his massive blade out of thin air. A blade of crystal, bright as suns, hard as diamonds.

"We are…" said the Star with the helmet, "The Interdimensional Space Company."

"I never agreed to that name!" Cried the blonde.

With a massive swing of his blade, the Giant managed to cut through a gash that tore the atmosphere in half, halting the flow of the dead magic goo in a single stroke. The liquid magic rumbled, prompting both me and Marco to run for cover behind one of the crumbling dying crystals. How could these three Stars even hope to defeat something so massive?

But the three magic Stars never backed down, not one bit. Instead, they soared through the air down towards where the Giant laid his heavy blade. They flew fast, faster than meteors, and when they rammed their cosmic fire into the Giant, it burned with hellish celestial flames of will. The blade was strong, but their blast too had strength to equal his crystal.

Too engulfed in the battle taking place before my eyes, I didn't even think to look back to check on Marco until he tapped my shoulder. I looked back and was horrified.

"Star? What's happening to me?"

Slowly but surely, his finger began to crumble into pieces. Decaying skin cells withering away like a dying tree beyond its time, trying to find its final rest. Gradually, the speed was picking up, disintegrating faster and faster by the second, working its way down his palm, then his forearm.

"Marco! No, no, no, what's going on?" I scrambled to where he sat, desperately trying to hold him together, collecting the pieces that were flying away.

"Star, I… don't…" Marco glanced at his other hand, now noticing it disintegrating as well.

"No, stop… wait…" I glanced down Marco's abdomen, and clear as day, there were purple markings staining his hoodie. I grabbed onto his zipper, pulled it down, and lifted his shirt to find a clear wound, infected by the purple magic.

"What happened here?" I cried. "How did… did you get stabbed?"

"I… it's… it's nothing…" Marco stammered, noticing his right arm had been completely reduced to dust. He looked me in the eyes, oh, those beautiful brown eyes.

He took one deep breath, and uttered his sweet voice… one last time:

"I love you, Star."

"No, no, you're not going anywhere," I cried out loud with great anguish, "I won't allow it!"

But Marco tried to reassure me by reaching over for a kiss on my lips. His warmth was still there, maybe I could still hold onto it somehow, put it in a bottle.

But the way he looked at me, that smile trying to comfort my tears. It was too bitter to swallow.

"Goodbye, Star. I love you."

And just like that. He was gone.

Not even a shadow remained. There was nothing left for me to hold onto, nothing left to even bury. His clothes, his shoes – nothing.

All that remained was me and my pain, leaving me broken in this haunting puddle of dying magic. He was gone, but I was still here. I wanted to join him, go wherever he went. We belong together. That was our promise to each other. Why was I still here? Why take him and not me? I prayed to whoever was listening then, whispering to my aching heart, to bring him back to the land of the living so that I could take his place.

But no one listened. Only agony remained.

"You there, Star of Universe SVT63," the blond Star approached me, descending from above with her capes flapping about. "What happened to the magic here? Who killed its life force?"

Choking on my own overwhelming grief, I answered with a whisper:

"I did."

"What did you say?"

"I SAID I DID IT!" I cried. "I'm the one responsible. I'm the one to blame. Now will you let me mourn in peace?"

The blond looked at me, her face unmoving, unblinking. I wasn't sure what she was thinking. But what she said to me then was something I could never expect:

"I'm sorry. My condolences. I know – it is not easy. I know."

"_Princess, look out!"_

The monster girl shouted from above.

And there the Giant forced his way through the other two Stars and their energy blasts. Puffing his chest, he raised his crystal blade once more. This time with divine conviction. His sword glowed bright, and the strike was swift, clean and forceful. It pushed itself through space at unimaginable speed. I did not even get a chance to process what happened before the splash of liquid magic blinded my field of vision.

* * *

"_I told you we weren't ready,"_ Quasar shouted. "If I hadn't made that portal to yank us all out, we would've been ripped apart."

Gone.

"What would you have us do instead?" Said Princess Star, "Sit here while that universe falls into oblivion?"

"We were not ready!" Quasar repeated. "These are Giants. Their powers are beyond anything we've ever known."

"Do not lecture me on whether I'm ready or not," the princess pointed her finger at Quasar. "You have not that right."

They argued on.

"We could've died," said Quasar. "You ever think of that? It does not matter I suppose. The result is the same. We lost our rogue Giant. So it's best we regroup and plan this out further."

"We do not have the time," said Princess Star. "He could not have gone far. He must be going to a neighboring universe of some sort. We need to follow him. There's a clear path."

"And you know what that path is?" Said Quasar.

"We've gone over this a hundred times already," Princess Star responded. "Did you not listen my presentation and calculations? It's obvious that he will land in Universe SVT49. The numbers don't lie."

Arguing on and on.

"The numbers show probability, not fact," Quasar rebutted. "We cannot take a chance. Too much collateral damage if we choose the wrong universe."

"I'll enter the Moonforce then," said Princess Star. "That'll grant me enough speed to catch up to him if we enter the wrong universe."

"And you can control this immeasurable power?" Quasar asked. "The same power that drove you mad the last time you used it?"

On and on. But in the end – it changed nothing; my world was gone. And so was Marco.

"You question my ability to stay sane?"

"Yes, I do. In fact, I question your so-called infinite power of the Moonforce. A wild claim I say, nothing more."

"Let's settle this with a demonstration then. Care to test me? Test my skills, my patience?"

"Believe me, I would love to flatten you like a bug."

"GUYS!" MonStar snapped, hissing intensely at the two bickering children.

It caught their attention, with the monster princess directing their attention towards where I was wallowing in my misery. MonStar was a nice girl, she offered me a drink, something to eat. Though I questioned where they would even get food in this magic dimension place thingy with all these Giants. Anything was possible with magic, I guess. But truth was I was in no mood to eat, and no magic could change that.

Princess Star composed herself, clearing her throat:

"I apologize, Star 63. I just… it's easy for me to get lost in this work. Believe me when I say I want to catch this rogue Giant as much as you do, to undo the damage he has done."

"I… I just don't get it…" I stuttered, struggling to put my thoughts together. "Taking Marco… why him? Why…"

MonStar stepped forth to where I sat, placing her gentle hand onto my shoulder.

"You can stay here for as long as you need," she smiled. "Metal will look after you. And we will go out there and restore your universe. That's a promise."

"What? No!" I cried, leaping off to my feet, "Screw that noise. Um, respectfully. Screw that. I'm coming with you guys. This jerk took away my home universe. I'm not going to sit back and let that slide."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," said Quasar. "You don't even have a wand."

"_Well that may change momentarily_," Metal the Giant Unicorn laughed, "here, catch!"

And wouldn't you know it? The Unicorn tossed a magic wand right towards my direction. A wand of purple color and white wings. No mistake about it. It landed in the palm of my hand, and the moment it touched my skin, a massive energy burst erupted from within. It was power unlike anything I had ever felt, even dipping down and my golden Butterfly form could not match this flood of magic. The wand transformed, and sure enough it morphed right into a rod of pure energy and purple light – my wand.

My wand had always been, how should I put it? Unique? It never really took a definitive shape like the previous queens of Mewni. It was always just a bolt of hard light and plasma, a bolt of lightning. A lot of people questioned my authority and even my very being itself, it wasn't enough that I was a boy, being different from the queens before, but my wand had to be formless as well. How could a prince be queen of Mewni? What authority could I have if my wand couldn't even form properly?

But this was my form. This was my power.

"I grant you this as a gift, my friend," Metal smiled. "A wand crafted by a Giant, dipped into the pool of infinite magic, with powers spanning the multiverse."

"I… I don't know what to say…" I stammered as I looked back up to the Unicorn, smiling, "I thought I had to give up magic forever."

"And there's more, too," Metal reached into the pocket on his leather apron, pulling out a mighty flapping purple cape, just like that of the other three Stars. "Behold, the Cape of Dreaming Heroes, woven out of the infinite fabric of the Gifts of the Sandman by our brother Silky Silk of the Majestic Weaving Weaver. A powerful garment granting you the gift of flight and invisibility."

"So I can't fly or turn invisible without it?" I asked. "Can't I just use my wand?"

"Sure you can, but it'll drain the battery real fast," said Metal. "You can recharge here in the Magic Source when the wand starts flashing red, indicating the battery running dry."

"What about dipping down? Surely that can't drain any battery, can it?" I asked.

"No three-dimensional mortal has ever been capable of such a feat," said Metal, "controlling sixth-dimensional magic from the Source. The most anyone's ever done is control the three-dimensional magic. Dipping down into three-dimensional magic is convenient but lacks the firepower a magic wand can provide. This wand is strong, it channels power from the very Source. I guarantee you it will not fail you on your mission to bring back your lost home. If you believe in it, it shall believe in you."

"I… this is…" I took in one deep breath, and let it all out, "thank you, Metal."

"It is my pleasure."

"The journey will be dangerous still," Quasar commented. "With or without our magic wands. Are you certain you still want to go through with it? This is a Giant so powerful one swing of his sword is enough to cut a universe apart."

I glanced around to all the Stars, meeting them deep in their gaze, only then did I finally realize that these guys weren't asking me that question because they thought me beneath them. Instead, what I saw were their individual determination, each and every single one of them, all longing for some personal goal they were pursuing. All prepared to travel to the edge of the multiverse, whatever it took.

I held up my wand, the bolt of energy sparked with strength I had never experienced before, strength I could somehow control, barely anyway. It overwhelmed me with knowledge and cosmic force. I nodded my head, not another word spoken. I doubted that even Quasar would doubt the power in the magic wand, for if she were to doubt me, she would doubt herself – the alternate Stars.

"METAL, METAL!" A voice suddenly called from afar, it was one of the other Unicorns, "come quick!"

"What is it brother Silk?"

"Mutiny, brother," said the Unicorn, "it's Proudful Pride of the Brilliant Bartering Merchant. He wishes to follow the rogue."

"What? That cannot be."

Metal pushed his way past his brother and into the other side of this massive land of magical light. Us four Stars followed after, with me staying briefly behind to put on my cape. It looked serious. I wanted to prepare myself. And the massive crowd of Giants gathering around just made it that much more tense. There in the middle of this gathering, a single Unicorn wearing a bright white suit with red tie. He dressed sharply and his mane was well groomed underneath the sharp golden horn on his forehead. He stood there delivering his speeches to his brethren.

"Fiery Fire of the Punishing Crystalized Executioner is right, my brothers," Pride echoed his deep voice to the sea of Unicorns. "Our father in heaven has abandoned us for a Freedom beyond the Magic Source. He cares for the Giants no longer. Leaving us trapped here behind the wall, this cage, this prison."

"Pride!" Metal shouted, "What is the meaning of this?"

"An awakening my dearest brother," said Pride. "You are our leader are you not? Then let us join Fire on his pilgrimage, join him on his quest to protect the multiverse, correcting them, watch over them and keep the order."

"And pray tell, brother, who watches the watchmen?" Metal questioned him. "You know full well the deal with the lizard is of demonic force, a force that lets us break the laws and leave our home. A force that lies to us, giving us a false sense of Freedom. You know full well we Giants are too big for these smaller universes."

"I shall not be made a fool by father," said Pride. "Molten Mold of the Unyielding Adamantine Chain agrees with me, so does Sparkling Spark of the Celestial Shining Anvil."

"The heat of the forge affects your thinking my brothers," Metal pointed towards the metal equipment that were being lit up by the stars. "You are thinking irrationally. Stop this foolish path at once."

"I WILL NOT FOLLOW OUR FATHER ANYMORE!" The Unicorn yanked out a mighty golden pistol from his shirt pocket. It was engraved with many exotic seals and runes. It was long, peculiar, eight barrels, and there where the hammer should be was a little fuse that had already been lit up by a miniature supernova.

"Put down your gun, Pride," Metal took a step back, prepared to defend himself. "You are not well, and you are not fit to be a watchman."

"I will not let anyone get in the way of cosmic righteousness," said Pride. "Not even you, Metal. This shall be a warning shot, for you to know not to meddle with my affairs."

"HALT!"

A booming voice exploded upon Pride and his two supporting brothers, Mold and Spark. And flying far above these Giants was she – Princess Star Butterfly. Her cape flew under great whirlwinds. And her wand formed an almighty greatsword of heavenly force. Her eyes glowed blue, and her blade was sharp.

"In the name of my mother, and her mother before, I – Princess Star Butterfly order you to step down from this rebellion."

Pride sneered at the girl floating above him, chuckling under his breath:

"And thus, the lower creatures speak. To let these lowlifes into our home is already enough of a travesty of heavenly laws. But to allow them a voice? You have gone too far, Metal."

"If you have something to say, then you shall address to me, Star Butterfly, daughter of Moon Allmother."

"And me as well."

I gasped in delight, shocked to see Quasar flying up high, taking her place beside Princess Star. Her bell rang loud the gold of her magic. What a beautiful majestic sound it was.

"I do not fully understand it yet…" said Quasar, "but us three, no, us four alternate versions of ourselves are brought here for a reason. And it seems more likely now than ever that the reason is for us to take up arms – and protect those who cannot themselves."

"_That must be the reason,"_ shouted MonStar, taking her place along the two, "the multiverse falls in peril. We must act, no matter how big or small we may be. Gods or mortals, it does not matter. I swear in the name of my people, in the name of my father, the name of my mother, I shall not let another universe crumble like the last."

And in that very moment, it became clear. My path, my new path, my new destiny. What must be done for things to be right once more. I could not sit by any longer. The bolt of plasma in my palm shook with violent force, for my heart became more restless as the seconds went by.

I raised the bolt up high, letting its power crackle as thunders echoed across this heavenly hall. The cape let me travel upwards, letting me join my fellow Stars, likeminded sisters. Powerful and determined. It felt different without my Butterfly wings, and yet somehow refreshing, the cape practically made me weightless.

I needed not speak another word, for the other Stars understood the willpower of my magic, the crackle of my bolt – thus they nodded their heads.

"FOOL!" Pride shouted, pointing his pistol towards the four of us, with the fuse of the gun nearly fully lit. "One blast of this gun shall deliver you all to oblivion. It will unmake you just as it shall unmake the wall, Freeing us all into the multiverse."

"Star Butterflys!" Princess Star commanded, raising her wand. The rest of us followed suit. "On my mark. Channel your magic – will the gun out of existence."

The wands lit up brilliantly in a rainbow of lightning, sparks of energy exploded from the devices. And there we beheld – the sight of four mighty greatswords of four mighty heavenly celestial bodies. To this day, it was still the most beautiful thing I had ever witnessed.

This was the full power of the magic wand. It gave us knowledge, magic flowing right into our blood, infusing us with enchantments. Boosting our strength, shielding our mortal bodies with hard lights of the Magic Source. It felt overwhelming and yet – Free. I had never had this much power before. I felt like I could do anything.

The blast of our blades fiercely pierced the gold of Pride's pistol, dismantling his weapon piece by piece as if it were a child's toys. It blinded him in ways even he himself could not expect. The energy was so intense it burst off into his entire body, even though we had only aimed for the pistol. Scratching and clawing at his skin, the energy knocked the Unicorn off his feet and wrestled him to the ground.

The flow of energy felt as infinity, blasting the Unicorn for what felt like days, if not months. And yet, once it was finished, logic dictated that only moments had passed through the great cosmic clock.

But how? It felt so easy, too easy. Three-dimensional mortals, overpowering and defeating a sixth-dimensional godly being? How could he have burned so easily? The Unicorn lied there unconscious, his fur scorched by our combined might. Was it over already? So quickly?

To have all the other Unicorns stare at us in awe, even Pride's two supporting brothers. They stood there helplessly, fearful to act, afraid to even budge an inch. And in the end – had fallen to their knees.

* * *

"That… was… something, alright," I said.

"I… I don't believe it," said Quasar. "I can't believe it."

"I feel so… alive," Princess Star glanced down her palm, still glowing with blue magic. "To fell a godly Giant."

"It can't be that easy," said Quasar. "Could the wands be more powerful than we first thought? Why couldn't we defeat that Giant called Fire then? But to defeat Pride here."

"It… may not be as illogical as it seems," said MonStar.

"What do you mean?" Princess Star asked.

"The wands," said MonStar, "they are powered by our will. If our will is strong, then it is strong. How powerful were we really when we faced Fire? Reckless and inexperienced with this new magic. But when united as a unit, the four of us, more focused, more determined."

"Are you saying we're actually capable of taking on Fire now?" Quasar asked. "And all we have to do is be 'more determined' or something?"

"Maybe…" said MonStar.

"What a load of nonsense," Quasar snapped. "The win loss record is data, and the data does not lie."

"The data is incomplete," said Princess Star. "We had one loss against the Giant Fire, one! It is not enough to be conclusive."

"It was a _devastating_ loss!" Quasar argued. "Fire didn't just overpower us, we were steamrolled! One swing of his sword could cut the space in the atmosphere itself. We weren't even in the same league. What exactly do we have now that we didn't before?"

And at that moment, I turned to face the Stars, speaking up from my silence:

"Well… you have me."

The three of them turned their heads, staring at me with mixed emotions. As if they had forgotten that I was here with them this whole time. It was a bit too abrupt to handle, all the attention now placed on me. But I took my deep breath and there my thoughts began to flow:

"When you first faced Fire the Giant, you were unfocused, uncoordinated, yes? You three had just met after all. How could you work together like that? Individually, we alone cannot fight the Giants. But what if we have more of us? Three, four, five… ten…"

"How much more?" Asked Quasar.

"Lots more," I said. "You said it yourself, didn't you, MonStar? The multiverse is in peril, and we are here for a reason. It is one big multiverse. And there are many, MANY Star Butterflys out there. In universes far away from here."

"Are you suggesting… we form a team?" Princess Star asked.

"I mean… why not? We're all here, aren't we?" I said. "The Giant took my home. He took my family… my boyfriend. I don't know how I can forgive myself if I didn't swear to go after him and undo the damage. I don't know how any Star can forgive themselves in the same circumstances. If the Giant continues to spread his chaos and destruction, who are we to stop the Stars of the multiverse from seeking retribution?"

"I understand your pain," said MonStar. "I too feel pain of my own. We all do. Right guys?"

Princess Star nodded her head, while Quasar fell unusually silent.

"We can help people," I said. "I want to help people. Maybe Fire is right. Maybe the multiverse really is out of balance. In that case I want to fix it."

"Helping people is fine," said Quasar. "But we must first help ourselves, help our people. I have my people to protect. I can't just abandon them."

"_Maybe you don't have to."_

Metal joined into our conversation, wearing a generous smile on his face, a thankful smile.

"Hey, Metal," Princess Star waved her hand. "How's the situation over there?"

"It's calmed down… for now," said the Unicorn. "You have my gratitude for what you have done. A revolt would have caused us much damage, both to the forge and to our family."

"What is this about not having to abandon our home?" Quasar asked the Giant.

"Ah yes, that, well you see," Metal pulled out from his leather apron a pair of glowing scissors. It grabbed my attention, for I thought it was a pair of dimensional scissors, but it seemed different somehow. The bright glow emitted from its steel felt almost radioactive, it was bright, blinding – even when I had gotten used to the brightness of this realm.

"We have many gifts from the gods," said Metal. "This one is a fragment of the broken but eternal Ancient Blade of Hecate. The blade is old, and unattended for, abandoned by its creator for what reason I do not know."

"Hekapoo," I muttered under my breath.

"This pair of scissors will allow you to hide your home universe from the multiverse," the Giant explained. "Keeping your home safe from cosmic harm, taking it off the map, thus allowing you to your work here outside the fifth-dimension."

"That's… great," Princess Star glanced at the blade with curious eyes.

"There is one drawback however."

"What's that?" I asked.

"In order to hide your universe, you must cut all ties from your home. You will not be allowed to return, nor will you be allowed to contact the loved ones waiting for you back there. If you disobey and return home, the cloak shall be broken and can never be cast again, leaving your home universe open to the cosmic danger."

Never… return home. This was the demand of this mission? The price we had to pay. But then again, I didn't have a home to go back to anyway. The three other Stars, however, were not like me. I couldn't imagine how difficult a decision this must be for them.

"It is a big sacrifice," said Metal. "You may think it over before…"

"I'll do it!" Princess Star spoke up without hesitation. Causing Metal to glare with confused eyes. "I will not return home until my enemy is destroyed. The longer he is out there in the cosmos, the longer people will suffer."

"I'll do it as well," MonStar raised her hand. "I shall volunteer myself. For my kingdom, for my people. Helping the multiverse shall give me fruits, the power and answers I seek."

Inspired by their courage, I too raised my hand:

"You already know I'm coming with you. I will not stop until my universe is restored, that is a promise."

The Princess and MonStar welcomed me with their smiles, patting me on my back. But what of Quasar I wondered. Who was still sitting there contemplating. She sat there, shaking her golden bell. Perhaps to let the sound soothe her mind?

"Will you join us… my friend," Princess Star extended her hand. A surprising motion, for these two had been bickering non-stop since they met. At least… until now.

Quasar looked at the Princess's gentle hand, then glanced back to her gaze, scanning her thoughts. Quasar shook her head and breathed a heavy sigh.

"You're all crazy, you know that?"

It almost crushed my heart to hear her say that. But then the unexpected arose, as the girl stood right up – and proceeded to shake the Princess's hand with her own firm grip. Looking into each other's gazes with the proudest of smiles.

"I guess I am, too."

I stood back to breathe a long sigh of relief myself. Thanking the forces on high for the decrease in tension. It was a nice change of pace. And I was glad the four of us were able to work things out in the end.

"So then," said Quasar, "what shall we call this little team of ours? I vote to keep the name I suggested. The Interdimensional Space Company."

"Come on now," Princess Star said, "that is a name as bland as eagle eggs with no salt or pepper."

"It's not a bad name," MonStar commented, "but I think we can do better."

"Agreed," I said.

"It needs a certain flair," said MonStar, tapping her chin. "We need to make ourselves known to the multiverse, so that the people may know of their new guardians."

"I think it's a fine enough name," said Quasar. "The people shall know of us from our actions. Not any title."

"Fair enough," said Princess Star, "all the same, though. It's good to get our names out there, be unique. A name friendly enough to ease the troubled minds of good folks, but fierce enough to strike fear in our enemies."

A sudden thought just popped into my mind, a bizarre idea:

"Hey, this might sound a bit weird. But… um… my boyfriend, Marco. He often listens to this one song on his phone. Even making it his ringtone – Space Unicorns."

"Huh, that's… a funny coincidence I must say," said MonStar, "in the presence of these Giant Unicorns among us."

"That's a weird name," said Quasar.

"Not to me," said Princess Star. "You may not have them on your home, Inwem. But from where I come from, Warnicorns are fierce beasts, powerful and only meant to be tamed by the mightiest warriors."

"One of our queens," said MonStar, "her name is Skywynne, Queen of Hours."

"I do not know this name," said Quasar. "Sounds vaguely familiar however."

"She may go by a different name in your timeline," MonStar replied. "But Skywynne was one of, if not the most powerful queen in history. Her names are made known across the lands through songs and poems, celebrating her good deeds and great strength. And one of her most powerful spells she had ever invented – was the Warnicorn Stampede. Invoking the name of these powerful beasts. To be named after these noble steeds would be an honor."

"So what?" Quasar shook her head, "We're just going to call ourselves the Space Warnicorns?"

"Why not?" I said. "And we can go even further with some word play. This team of ours, it shall be a great union, a great force that rivals that of the strongest military across the cosmos. We can recruit more Stars along the way to aid in our cause, we can be an army… we can be – a corps. A Space Warni-Corps."

"Really?" Quasar rolled her eyes.

"I kind of like it," Princess Star grinned, "got a nice ring to it."

"The unique flair," said MonStar.

"It is decided then," said Princess Star. "From this day forth we shall be known as the Space Warni-Corps."

"You're just saying that because you don't want to go with the name I came up with."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Princess Star laughed nervously, "I would never disrespect such a mundane boring name."

"I say we put it to a vote," said Quasar.

"Alright," the Princess nodded her head. "All in favor of the Space Warni-Corps, say aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Curses!" Quasar cried, followed by the three of us bursting out with our laughter of childlike innocence.

"Let's join wands everyone," said Princess Star, as the four of us placed our wands against each other in this holy round table, the greatswords lit up bright as we the Stars. "We shall commemorate this momentous event with a message to the multiverse. The wands shall be our couriers."

"What's the message going to be?" I asked.

And she responded with a confident smile:

"_Beware, beware the angels of the Source_

_The Warni-Corps of Space and there beyond_

_We Stars shall take up arms, and sacrifice_

_Our lives to shield the endless worlds from harm."_

The magic wand was the most powerful weapon in the universe. But from here on out, we will face much more powerful foes. So we must be prepared to:

"Sacrifice!" I, the Boy announced my pledge.

"Sacrifice!" The Princess announced her pledge.

"Sacrifice!" The Monster announced her pledge.

"Sacrifice," the Scientist announced her pledge.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Prissy Princess Star part 3**

How did it all go wrong so quickly? What exactly was the misstep we took?

How in Allmother's name did we all die so quickly?

Wiped out like a colony of ants being snuffed by poison. Technically we weren't dead yet. Since I was still breathing, only barely, however. Not thinking straight. Need my wand. Pray to Skyland.

Again, with that word. How on Mewni did I know that word? What did it mean?

No time! Quasar was lying unconscious over there near the crumbling rubble of the burning crystal. Her head bruised by the massive impact. What I would give to have this view photographed. You looked real stupid right now. Flatten me like a bug, give me a break. You couldn't even hold onto your bell. It flew off with the explosion to Allmother knows where. Who's laughing now?

A shame MonStar and 63 couldn't be around to laugh with me. Wait, why weren't they around again? Oh right, they were dead. Killed in the commotion, now those crystal snakes will eat all our bowels.

How did we get into this mess again?

Oh right – because of that message: 'Fire's weakness is crystal.'

I should never have listened to that cursed message.

* * *

**_3 hours ago…_**

"A letter?" I asked, glancing down the peculiar envelope, "For us? Are you sure? I didn't think we'd get a response that quick. We'd only just sent out our multiversal message. Who did you say you were again?"

The courier monster was no taller that four feet, wearing a blue uniform with a cute little round hat on top. She looked harmless enough despite the two horns on her head and her green bushy tail. She seemed familiar somehow, couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"I am from good ol' T… um… wait no… I mean… from good ol'… um… Messagegram?" The monster replied.

"Messagegram?" I raised my eyebrow.

"Yeah. It's a telegram… of sort. And a message. So a two in one. Welp, gotta go now!"

And with that – poof. She was gone.

"Hmm… weird," I whispered under my breath as I ripped open the envelope. Inside was a plain sheet of paper with a single line scribbled within:

_"Fire's weakness is crystal."_

Impossible! I thought to myself. This must be a prank of some sort from some cosmic trickster. But who would have the power and reach to find us here in this sixth-dimensional space? The courier monster never gave me any information on where it came from. What kind of postal service did she even work for? Sloppy work I must say.

It might not be that big a deal, though. I had bigger fish to fry. And that fish was all about proving to Quasar that I was right.

"I'm telling you – time travel," I told the rest of the Stars, their reaction was as expected – complete rejection.

"Don't you even dare think about it," said Quasar. "If I have to explain to you why that's a bad idea, then maybe you shouldn't even be entrusted with a wand."

"Don't you want to go home sooner?" I asked, "the wand is the most powerful weapon in the universe. What's stopping us from using time itself to our advantage?"

"Of course I want to find the Giant and end this," she said.

"We are in a higher spatial dimension above the traditional time and space," I explained. "Conventional temporal laws and paradoxes may not apply. As we are dealing with higher abstracts and concepts."

"Conventional paradoxes may not apply but what of the unconventional ones?" Quasar raised an eyebrow.

"Quasar is right," said MonStar. "We can't just go on willy-nilly about all this. It's time we're talking about – time!"

"What if…" Star 63 decided to chime in, "what if we don't actually time travel? Instead just speed things up? Just to get things move along a bit quicker. Not like outright travel to the moment we defeat Fire. For one we don't even know when that is. But maybe just speed up the more menial tasks, the in-betweens to make it less of a chore."

"We don't even know everything about Father Time," said Quasar, "a fourth-dimensional temporal entity. We know even less about Reynaldo's Boat, a fifth-dimensional temporal being. How could we hope to know about time as concept here in the Magic Source? Assuming it even exists at all that is. The Many Worlds Interpretation suggests a diverting of history to be a fix to a paradox that normally would be a problem within a closed system of a single timeline. But we are in a place beyond conventional time. There is no guarantee that what we do here would divert into a different timeline because we aren't even sure if this spatial bulk operates in that same way."

"Of course it doesn't," Metal popped into the conversation, smiling. "What do you take us for? Lower dimensional entities?"

"Mind telling us how it operates then?" I asked excitedly.

"No can do, Princess," he waved his hand. "That is the law, and the law must be upheld."

"See?" Quasar pointed her finger, "Even he understands the importance of cosmic laws."

"Okay, fine, ugh" I rolled my eyes. "I'll do as you say and won't time travel, happy?"

"You're just saying that but are in fact planning to time travel anyway, aren't you?" Quasar glared at me.

"What?" I looked about nervously, "What makes you say that? I would never do that. Though to be fair, for all we know, one of us could've time traveled already somewhere, in the past, the future, and we wouldn't even know it."

"Leave me out of your madness," said Quasar, "there is no 'one of us' or anything of the sort. Only you. You and… and… dang it, your craziness is contagious, now I lost my train of thought."

"Praise Allmother."

"Enough!" Quasar cried, "Not another word of this."

"Hmm… fine."

"I must say, 63," said MonStar, "I love these new emblems you made for all of us. They're so sleek."

"Ah, it's nothing really," 63 grinned. "It's a simple design. A unicorn. Just thought we'd have some recognizable mark of some sort. I never really liked uniforms. Just these capes and the emblems are enough I feel."

"Agreed," I said. "Simple, but effective. Let's move on now. Shall we make our ways to Universe SVT49 then?"

"We would be if it actually exists," said Quasar.

"What?"

"It's very bizarre," said Quasar as she scanned the bubbles floating off in the pool of magic, "I could've sworn I saw it right here last time we were arguing over which universe to fly off to. Right before we defeated Pride."

"Huh, you're right," I said, just now noticing. "Where did it go?"

"A whole universe can't just up and leave like that!" said 63, "Can it?"

"A whole universe is pretty large," I said. "No way to disappear without a trace. Try finding some clues."

"Um, guys," MonStar pointed her finger, "something's going on with this universe right here."

And sure enough there was another bubble glowing red, just as before in Universe SVT63. Another impending danger must be coming.

"Which universe is that?" Quasar talked into her bell, pointing it at the glowing bubble.

The wand responded with a soothing lady's voice:

"_Universe SVT18, bordering the Tavern and under the blinding light of Rhombulus's Field of Indestructible Spatial Crystal."_

"Crystal?" I raised my eyebrow, "No way… could it be?"

"What's wrong?" Quasar asked.

I pulled out the letter I had crumpled into my pocket earlier. Straightening out the paper and sure enough the message was still there, clear as day – '_Fire's weakness is crystal_'. Could this be somehow related?

"Take a look," I handed over the letter, "I got this from a monster courier earlier. Said she was from Messagegram? Whatever that means."

"What did the monster look like?" MonStar asked.

"Kind of small," I described, "wore a blue uniform and a blue hat. She had two horns and a tail. Why do you ask? That rings a bell?"

"No idea," said MonStar. "Never seen 'em in my life."

"Hmm, very peculiar," said Quasar, passing the letter to 63. "No address, no sender. Not even a stamp. Where did it come from?"

"I do not know," I said. "But should it be something worth investigating? It's not like we're going to be taking a massive detour or anything. Maybe we can see what the light of the Crystal Field looks like in that universe."

"I have a bad feeling about this," said 63.

* * *

"WAND!" I commanded, "Open a portal to Universe SVT18."

With a blinding flash the device blasted forward a tear in the fabric of space, prying open a big hole with white rainbow lights pouring from within. Thank Allmother for sixth-dimensional magic. One of the new perks was that now we could create portals much easier without the need for a pair of scissors. Before, it was difficult to forcefully pry open a wormhole of any kind with just three-dimensional magic. Theoretically I could probably accomplish it back then with the Moonforce, but I wasn't about to touch that with a ten foot pole. Manipulating the wand on its own was a challenge enough even with the new Magic Source. I never had the proper training.

"Let's go," said Quasar.

And into the universe we went.

Out on the other side of the portal was a familiar sight. The kingdom of Mewni – still in its glorious stature of cosmic influence with its castle towering towards the heavenly sky. The pink clouds native to this land circled the tall walls of the kingdom, dropping its breath to the people below.

But… wait a minute, where did everybody go?

The towns, the villages, the houses – the whole kingdom was empty.

Small cottages left unattended with its doors swinging in and out, small shops being unguarded from thieves and scoundrels with all their goods in public display for all to see, but there were none around to witness, nor anyone around to steal. The ground and the roads the people once walked on was now left blank without any previous trace. No footprints to be found. Washed away by the winters perhaps. If so, how many winters had it been since the people disappeared? What year was this universe in?

"Bell," Quasar commanded her own device, "scan for any sign of life on the planet."

With a ring of the bell, she echoed its magic across the vast surface of this realm, letting it travel at powerful speeds into the horizon beyond.

Shortly afterwards, the echo returned to the bell, capturing the sound, she rang it once more to have the device analyze the data. And the result?

"_Population of living creatures on the planet: 324,627. Occupying 21 percent of the planet's total land mass."_

"So few left behind? How many of them are sentient beings?" Quasar asked the bell.

The device calculated, giving its answer shortly after:

"_Zero."_

"Impossible," Quasar cried.

"What does it mean?" I asked. "Where did they all go?"

"Um, guys?" 63 called as he stood staring into the sky, "Do any of your home universes have that many asteroids orbiting the atmosphere?"

I glanced up to where he had pointed, and sure enough there beyond the clouds and deep into the space beyond – a field of asteroids so numerous it would be impossible to count them all, like sand in the beaches or stars in the sky. I probably wouldn't have been able to notice that if it weren't for the wand giving me extra visions. Now I could see miles and miles into the distance with little trouble.

"What on Mewni are those things?" MonStar gasped.

"Wand," I commanded, "scan the asteroid field."

The device lit up with rainbow flashes for a brief second, calculating what it was seeing. Shortly afterwards it gave us its results:

"_Detecting life signature. Brain wave patterns emanating from each individual asteroid."_

And at that moment it suddenly hit me. By the Allmother, my eyes flew wide open. Could it be? No, what kind of madness would it be if my theory was correct? But this was the multiverse we were dealing with. Many bizarre things will happen.

I must check to see what the truth was.

And so I gathered my strength, wielding my cape, I boosted myself off from the ground, letting myself be launched through the air like a soaring arrow. The sensation of flight gave me an overwhelming sense of ecstasy. Most mortals had only dared to dream of the day they could fly and soar through the atmosphere.

Not having that power was the first thing that restricted them. Another thing that forbade such a thing was the physics itself. Flying at immeasurable speed was dangerous, without sufficient power to overcome wind resistance one wouldn't be able to see where they were going. Fly too fast and you risk creating nuclear fusion caused by ramming into air molecules at that speed, in a way where the atoms wouldn't even have time to get out of the way. I must thank Allmother once more, for the magic of the wand and its energy shields that protected me from all that, allowing me to bypass into a place far beyond, letting me breathe in a place where one could not breathe.

And when I reached above the place beyond, into the atmosphere above the clouds – there I saw everything. The asteroid belt, it hemmed into the planet in a form of a massive ring, spreading far beyond into the edge of this globe. And then over yonder, above the asteroids – were moons.

Many of them. Not as much as the asteroids, but I was absolutely certain Mewni did not have this many moons orbiting my planet back home. Something was different here in this universe. And I was pretty sure I knew what it was.

"Princess!" Quasar shouted, following me shortly after, "what is the meaning of this? What did you find?"

"Look there," I pointed my wand. "Can't you feel it?"

"Dear Lord," MonStar gasped, finally feeling the energy her wand detected.

"The Mewmans aren't gone," I explained. "The asteroids, the moons – they ARE the Mewmans."

In the field, so many one could not count them all. A field of uncountable stones and orbiting bodies – I could hear their whispers.

Whispers gradually became private conversations, louder and louder, and before long – I could hear all of their voices. Voices of Mewmans.

"Holy mother of god," 63 stared in disbelief.

"You can say that again," I said.

"Holy mother of god," 63 repeated.

"Wait a second," said Quasar, "if the asteroids, the moons are the citizens, the people… then… who is the s…"

A bright flare of overwhelming heat burst open from afar, throwing all of us off balance. The magic of the wand swiftly readjusted our bearings, however. Flipping us all back to right side up and there far beyond the planet, beyond the belt – a shining mighty celestial body. The sun of Mewni.

A new hunch came forth from this theory. I pointed my wand towards where the sun was to scan its life force. Instantly, the wand hit me with a vision of rose-colored energy, letting me look deep into the core of this celestial body – there inside, the heart, its heart… no, her heart, her marks, the marks of the hearts, and its mighty greatsword.

There was no question about it now:

"The sun – she is Star Butterfly," I said aloud.

"WHAT?" The other three shouted in unison.

"Don't think about it too much," I told them. "We don't need to know about the history and the how. It's just the multiverse. We're here for the distress signal, nothing more."

"Fair point," said Quasar. "But what is the distress here? I don't…"

"WATCH OUT!"

In the distance far, a whirlpool of bizarre creatures came slithering towards this solar system. It was difficult to make out what they were from this distance. But once the magic wand adjusted my vision for me to see far beyond, I looked in horror at the sheer size of these monstrous forms – gigantic snakes made of crystal.

The snakes viciously crawled towards this solar system with murderous intent. They were so incredibly massive they could easily dwarf the sun Star with ease. Wrapping around Mewni and crushing it would be child's play to them. Their crystal skin was hard, yet glistening of cosmic light. I recognized where these snakes came from. Universe SVT18 was reflecting the light under the Indestructible Crystal Field, Rhombulus's Field. A thought of wishing them out of existence or out of this universe did occur to me, but I deduced that these snakes were much more powerful than anything in the third dimension. Putting two and two meant that the wand we were wielding now will not be effective, because they were commanded by third dimensional minds.

I figured that Quasar must have deduced the same thing as well when I looked over to her. She was clever. A little too clever for my taste. But for now, that will come in handy. We were about to enter the biggest battle of our lives.

"MonStar, 63," I commanded, "you two spread out, protect our flanks. Put up a shield around the asteroid belt and the moons. Reduce as much casualties as you can. Quasar, you take command in the center here. Hold them off for as long as you can."

"What will you do?" Quasar asked.

"I will talk to the sun," I told her. "We will need her strength to fight off these snakes."

Faster than thought, faster than light, we nodded our heads and sped off into different directions. Space was a vast ocean, but the speed of the wands made it so we could cover these distances in mere seconds. It was an exhilarating feeling traveling so fast.

The sun was big, not as big as the snakes, but still a sight to behold. The mighty weight of this celestial body made me look like a subatomic particle compared to her. And her heartbeat was strong, steady. I knew she noticed me.

Channeling great magic, I concentrated my wand, expanding the forces and energy towards my ears and my voice. The molecules were vibrating, and the power were pouring into my veins. It gave my voice a booming strength, echoing straight to the heart of the Star.

"STAR BUTTERFLY!" My voice exploded, "HEED ME!"

With no time at all, the heat of the sun shattered into a million flares, throwing me off balance. My wand had protected me from the heat thus far, but only because this Star wasn't actively concentrating heat towards where I was.

But now she was – and here she spoke:

"_LEAVE – THIS – PLACE – AT – ONCE!"_ The angelic voice boomed within my mind, "_YOU – DO – NOT – BELONG – HERE._"

"Listen to me," I said. "I am Star Butterfly of Universe SVT1435. We are the Space Warni-Corps. And we are here because we received a distress signal broadcasted across the multiverse."

"_I – DID – NOT – SEND – ANY – SIGNAL. LEAVE! MEWNI – IS – MINE – ALONE – TO – PROTECT."_

"You cannot defeat these snakes!" I shouted. "These are fifth dimensional beasts sent from a higher spatial dimension. Your three-dimensional magic cannot harm them."

"STAR, LOOK OUT!" Quasar called from afar, forcing my head to turn.

And there, the snakes grew even more numerous, uncountable. They each snapped their heads violently backwards, baring their sharp fangs, and deep in their throats they began charging up a vortex of cosmic fire, the fire burned hot, hotter than supernovas, and they were aimed directly at the sun.

Wait a minute… could this…

Could this be what the message was talking about? What if… what if the flame of the snakes was the weapon we needed… the weapon we needed to defeat Fire… what if…

"Get out of the way!" Quasar yelled, "I'm teleporting this solar system out of here, now!"

"What? Wait…" I cried, unknowingly charging up my wand, "NO!"

With great force, I bent the space around and launched myself off into the vast ocean. The shortened distance put me up against Quasar face to face within the blink of an eye, with my hand grasping onto hers, holding her back.

"What are you… let go of me!" Cried Quasar.

"We need those snakes alive," I explained. "They're the key to beating Fire."

"What? Are you crazy?" Quasar shouted.

"LOOK OUT!" MonStar and 63 yelled, pointing their fingers.

And before we knew it – we were dust.

The cosmic fire of these gigantic snakes swallowed us whole. I could barely move an inch while consumed by this flame. It burned off my protective energy shield with ease, searing my skin. I could even feel the heat penetrating my innards, as if a spear had just stabbed straight into my gut. I tried to focus my energy to the wand, willing it so that we would be out of this hellish flame. But a fruitless attempt that was, for my own willpower was like a candlelight compared to the flamethrower of the snakes.

The great pillar of fire forced the four of us straight down unto the surface of the sun, cracking our skulls on the fiery ground while simultaneously pushing sun Star right out of her orbit, violently pulling Mewni and the asteroid belt with her. Sun Star was hurt, I could feel her heart beating faster by the minute.

How did it all go wrong so quickly? What exactly was the misstep we took?

How in Allmother's name did we all die so quickly?

My mind went blank, couldn't think straight.

This was it, this was how we were going to die. Right on the first day on the job.

Well, I guess technically it was the second day, since that whole thing with 63's universe and the Giant Unicorn, what the hell am I babbling on about?

We died.

End of story.

* * *

_OR_ at least, we would've died if I didn't do the one thing I said I would not do.

Time travel.

Ha-ha, who's laughing now, Quasar? What I would give to have this view photographed. You looked real stupid right now. Flatten me like a bug, give me a break. You couldn't even hold onto your bell. It flew off with the explosion to Allmother knows where. And now I shall be the one to save the day, again.

All in the day's work.

So I told my wand to open a portal – and wind back time. Taking me back moments before. Just enough for me… to warn myself.

It was a foolproof plan… except…

The problem was I wasn't the first person to come up with this idea.

Or rather I should say I wasn't the first Star to come up with this idea.

Let's rewind a little bit.

Flash of blinding light, yaddi yaddi yadda, and there we were.

"Get out of the way!" Quasar yelled, "I'm teleporting this solar system out of here, now!"

"What? Wait…" the me from a few minutes ago cried, unknowingly charging up her wand, "NO!"

And there I came, shouting from the time portal:

"NO! Stop."

And what the blazes? Standing next to Quasar – I could not believe my eyes – two Princess Stars.

The me from just a few minutes ago, before attempting to grab Quasar by her hand, and another me?

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm… you?" The second me answered. "I come from the future. To warn the Corps about what's going to happen. Wait, who are you?"

"I also come from the future," I said, "in the future, we died. I'm here to prevent that."

Quasar shot me a look of disgust.

"What did I tell you about time traveling, Princess?" Quasar cried.

"Don't look at me," the original me said, "technically I haven't time traveled yet."

"Don't you dare give me that," Quasar shot back.

The madness of course did not stop there. Because over yonder behind me, came another portal.

"HEY, you guys. I come from the future, I'm here to warn you… what in Allmother's name is going on here?"

And another portal:

"Hey! I come from the future…"

And another:

"Hey there, fellow Stars…"

And another:

"Hey!"

Kept going on and on.

Until the space we were occupying were filled with enough Princess Stars to the point where it wasn't even possible to count them all. It filled up this solar system like jellybeans filling up an empty jar. Even the giant crystal snakes stopped momentarily, trying to decipher what was going on.

"Welp, this is the weirdest thing I've seen all day," said MonStar.

"You can say that again," said 63.

"What have you done, Princess?" Quasar asked.

"I… this doesn't make any sense…" I said, "this wasn't supposed to happen."

"You idiot!" Cried Quasar, "We are in a three-dimensional universe with a linear timestream, thus making what we do subject to its quantum laws. You go back in time, you're going to create a timeline divergence, thus technically meaning that you can't actually change the future."

"What?" I cried. "No, that doesn't seem right. We come from a timeline outside this one. What we do shouldn't have any effect, we are a foreign force."

"There are things we still do not fully understand about sixth dimensional magic," said Quasar. "With that kind of powerful extra dimensional magic, the divergences are somehow merging back into one singular super state, as if there is no divergence at all, and only one outcome is possible. Where you keep coming back in time to the same point, over and over again, to see yourself going back in time."

"GUYS, LOOK OUT!"

The great pillar of fire forced every single one of us straight down unto the surface of sun Star's fiery ground while simultaneously pushing her right out of her orbit, pulling Mewni and the asteroid belt with her.

How in Allmother's name did we all die so quickly?

* * *

Let's rewind a little bit.

"HEY, you guys. I come from the future, I'm here to warn you… what in Allmother's name is going on here?"

"I'm here about to tell this idiot Quasar not to teleport us away, because we need the crystal snakes alive."

"GUYS, LOOK OUT!"

The great pillar of fire forced every single one of us straight down unto the surface of sun Star's fiery ground while simultaneously pushing her right out of her orbit, pulling Mewni and the asteroid belt with her.

No way I will let it end like this.

Let's rewind a little bit.

"I'm here to warn…"

"LOOK OUT!"

"I'm here to warn you guys…"

"FIRE INCOMING!"

"Don't teleport…"

"WATCH OUT FOR THE SNAKES!"

"We need them alive, so don't tele…"

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

"I'm from the fut…"

"ENOUGH YOU FOOL!" Quasar cried, shaking off my strong grip, "Stop time traveling. You are IN the universe, part of this universe, no longer an outside foreign force meddling in a timeline you don't belong."

"The snakes!" I shouted, "Their sheer size must be warping time and space, merging the timelines."

"None of this nonsense make any sense to me," said 63, nudging the monster princess. "Are you following?"

"Nope," MonStar replied, shaking her head. "I think I'm going to… take a nap now."

"LOOK OUT!"

The great pillar of fire forced every single one of us straight down unto the surface of the sun, pushing sun Star right out of her orbit.

Let's rewind a little bit.

"So what exactly are we supposed to do to stop this?" I asked in the midst of the noisy crowd.

"I don't know!" Another me shouted.

"Think back," another me said, "what did we travel back here to do? To warn the Corps? Why?"

"Why do we have to warn the Corps?"

"Because we need to keep the snakes alive. And why is that?"

"Because Fire's weakness is crystal, so we might be able to get something out of these crystal snakes."

"Where did we get that idea?"

"THAT'S IT!"

"THE NOTE! The Messagegram!"

"I knew my bad feeling about the note was right!" 63 shouted.

"No address, no sender," cried Quasar, "and you're taking that god damn thing seriously? Enough of this nonsense. You are to drop this foolish path you are on and you are to help me teleport us the heck out of here, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

I gritted my teeth, and begrudgingly answered:

"Fine."

"Bell," Quasar commanded her wand, "teleport this solar system out of here."

"_Error, error. Insufficient energy. Crystal energy interfering with magic frequencies."_

"Star Butterflys!" I shouted towards my fellow future selves with a booming magical voice. The magic allowed the sound to be loud enough to catch their attention, "on my mark, together now. We teleport this solar system away from the snakes!"

The focus of our willpower was strong, and thus our magic wand was able to light up like a thousand suns. So bright not even my protective energy shield could fully protect my eyes from this blinding flash. To top that off, the light began to engulf the crystal snakes as well, bouncing off their innards and illuminating this solar system as if this were a big bang. This power was incredible.

So this was what the power of an army felt like – a proper Corps.

But it wasn't enough. The snakes were just too big, and their mass and gravity too heavy, pulling the entire solar system from the teleportation process out of the light speed. Like a rope with a hook tugging onto our side, except in this case the rope was the snakes and their monstrous fangs themselves.

"We need more power over here!" 63 shouted.

"Can't hold it any… longer…," MonStar strained her face.

"KEEP PUSHING!" Quasar yelled, with her bell furiously ringing, "We cannot let this world die. Not another one!"

"Wait!" A thought popped into my head, "I have an idea."

Turning around I commanded my cape and flew right towards the sun. She was beautiful, the celestial body before me. And the mighty greatsword she still hid within the sheath that was her heart was practically rupturing from within, anxious and eager. I could feel her blade vibrating with excitement, waiting to burst forward and obliterate them all.

"_Sunny Star Butterfly!"_ I shouted, "Heed me. We need your help. Lend us your power and let us teleport this solar system far away from here."

Without a moment of hesitation, the sun began to rumble, vibrating incredible strength.

"CLEAR THE WAY!" I shouted, catching everyone's attention.

What a sight to behold that brief moment of power was. An exploding supernova expertly blasted towards in the distance as a massive beam, a pillar of pure plasma, giving power unto the spell the Corps was casting while simultaneously shielding us from crystal fire of the snakes. It gave us time, gave us energy, the strength to push forth and finally, after all these efforts, to focus our willpower and wish all of us out of this warzone. Not a moment too soon. I had a feeling that Sunny Star wouldn't have been able to hold the shield from the crystal fire for any longer than a few seconds at best. But a few seconds were enough.

* * *

What an intense first mission this was. We managed to save an entire civilization of millions if not billions of innocent lives. We even managed to shield these guys away from further prying eyes with the scissors Metal gave us. I had worried that we might not be able to return here again after using the scissors, but thankfully Metal told us that the only universe we could not go back to was our own home universe. We will still be able to travel freely to and from with other universes even if we had used the scissors for them.

The thought made me happy that I will still be able to help these people if more danger were to show up. But it did bring up certain personal feelings of longing, for it had been long since I last saw my father, my Allmother, my family.

Still, helping these folks was a good enough reward for me… I supposed. Sunny Star was a very responsible Star Butterfly. Even when we offered her help in relocating and settling the asteroid folks down to their new home, she still insisted she could accomplish such a feat by herself, because thankfully, she could tell that cleaning up the bunch of time traveling Stars would be much more tiresome than the problems with her own people. And she was right. It took quite a while to get everything back in order, all thanks to sixth dimensional magic. The incomprehensible magic that helped us clean up this timeline mess, finally merging all the future Stars back to me, somehow.

This was still one peculiar universe at the end of the day, a thought that never left my mind, lingering in the back. We asked her why she was a sun and why the rest of the Mewmans were either asteroids or moons. She told us her tale, or rather, she told us the reason for her tale anyway. A lot of things were still incredibly vague, all we knew then was that it was a long and tragic story, feeling responsible for her own mistakes of the past, she took up the responsibility as guardian and protector of Mewni and transferred her consciousness to the heart of this dying celestial body. How the rest of the Mewmans followed suit was, in her words, a story for another day. Very peculiar indeed, it was actually very fascinating talking to her. You wouldn't be able to tell from her looks, but she was a sparkling conversationalist.

In the end, I thanked Sunny Star just as she thanked the Corps for helping their people battle the crystal snakes. I even offered her a place in our Corps. And her answer?

"I – THANK – YOU – BUT – MY – PLACE – IS – HERE – WITH – MY – PEOPLE."

"I understand," I said. "You're still welcome to accept as an honorary member any time. Even if you're not with us physically. You can still be part of us."

"THANK – YOU – ALL. I – WISH – YOU – LUCK – WITH – YOUR – PERSONAL – MISSIONS. MY – CONDOLENCES."

"And we wish you luck as well," said Quasar. "Please, spread the word of the Corps. Let the people know of the multiverse's guardian."

"I – FARE – YOU – WELL."

Thus, with that the four of us sped off into the distance of cosmic far.

We had a lot to think about after this quest, a lot to talk about. And I think I knew what the first thing we needed to discuss was.

"I was wrong," I told Quasar as we were flying, to her absolute shock.

"Whoa, really?"

"Yes, really," I said. "You were right. Time isn't just something to mess with. Messing with a traditional timestream was chaotic enough. I shake in horror thinking what would happen if we mess with the temporal field outside the three-dimensional universes, in the Magic Source for example."

"It's not your fault really," she told me, to MY surprise. "It was a tense situation out there. You did what you had to do. Not to mention the letter that was sent to you. It influenced your decision making."

"Speaking of which," MonStar joined in, "where _did_ that letter come from?"

"Like I said, I do not know," I told her. "It just showed up from this Messagegram monster who…"

I paused, gears were turning in my head. A letter with no name, no address, no stamp. Messagegram? The heck was a Messagegram? Unless… it was just something to cover up…

"HOLY ALLMOTHER OF GOD!" I shouted with this new revelation, "I was played. PLAYED! Like a fiddle, a fiddle!"

"What?" The three all asked in unison.

"There was never any Messagegram," I explained. "That monster was not who she said she was. The letter, it's not a Messagegram. It's a Timegram."

"A – WHAT?"

"It's crazy but hear me out," I cleared my throat, "time travel – is crazy. It is unpredictable, and incredibly powerful. Capable of shifting the entire universe if used improperly. We hold in our hands the most powerful weapons in the universe, nay, the most powerful devices in the multiverse. We need to have rules to keep us in check, keep our powers away from corruption, from being abused, either by an enemy or even one of us."

"We would never abuse these powers for evil goals," said 63.

"Not willingly, no," I told them, "the possibility of mind control exists, and that is a scenario we simply cannot ignore. We need rules, we need laws…"

"Like, some kind of Corps Code?" Quasar asked.

"Yeah exactly, that has a nice ring to it actually," I laughed, "we finally agree on something. We should have a Corps Code. With the first law on that code being – NO TIME TRAVEL."

"What does this have anything to do with the letter?" 63 asked.

"Don't you see?" I smiled, giddy at the thought of blowing their minds, "I was the one who sent this letter."

"Wait, WHAT?" They all shouted in disbelief.

"Or rather, I _will_ be the one who sends this letter… to myself… in the past. Think about it, we would've never even considered the danger of time travel if we didn't see it for ourselves, because I wouldn't have been desperate to stick around and face the crystal snakes, resulting in us dying over and over and over again. The letter called my attention to this lie, the lie that '_Fire is weak to crystal_' thus forcing my curiosity and my obsession. For the sake of the Corps Code, we _have _to send this letter backwards in time, so that our past selves would have a chance of understanding the importance of this Code when they see the madness of time travel itself. Do you follow me?"

"Nope, you lost me at sending the letter to yourself," said 63.

"This is going to hurt my brain," said MonStar. "Wait no, it already hurt my brain. I don't like it."

"Oh boy," Quasar sighed in disappointment, "are you really sure this is a good idea? Because I would much sooner bite off an actual bootstrap before I even touch this whole mess with a ten foot pole."

"Don't worry about it, I'll have the Timegram monster do the dirty work, much safer that way. There's a postal service for us to use, we should use it to our advantage, no? This will be the last time we time travel before the Code, I promise."

"You're really going through with it?" Quasar asked.

"Yes, that's right."

"And nothing I say is going to stop you, isn't it?" Quasar asked.

"Nope."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Quasar Caterpillar part 2**

We needed to widen our horizons. One singular universe was big enough as it was, and there were only four of us. How could we feasibly even hope to cover the volume of the entire multiverse? Our main goal was still to find the Giant Unicorn known as Fire, but things had been quiet – too quiet. I did not like it one bit.

We could fly at transluminal speeds thanks to our magic wands. But we were horribly understaffed, and that was an understatement. We needed to find new recruits and fast. Not to mention transluminal speeds meant very little against beings bigger than universes.

"What are you working on there?" MonStar asked as I tinkered away at my magic bell.

"Finding a way to recalibrate these devices," I replied. "I'm looking for ways to have full diagnoses and analyses of the universes we see in the pool of magic. So that we don't go in blind whenever we do one of our missions."

"That is a lot of data," said Princess Star. "By my rough estimate, at least ten to the sixtieth yottabytes, depending on the size of each universe."

"I'm trying to find ways to make the wand focus on relevant information," I said, "eliminating as much useless data as possible. We only need to know so much. Knowing how many subatomic quarks there are in a dandelion isn't awfully relevant to what we do here."

"Another distress signal you guys," 63 called from afar, pointing his wand at three universes rapidly blinking with red lights.

"We need some way to catalogue these distress signals," I said. "Some way to order them from most important to least."

"Already on it," said Princess Star. "The wand's ability to make constructs is simply unparalleled. I already have a supercomputer in place to analyze the data once you finish your tinkering over here and hook up the analyzer function."

"Are you getting used to the wand yet," I asked her. "No formal training and all. I hate to find the computer you had up and running suddenly collapse halfway through some important mission."

"Getting there," she replied. "I am working as fast as I can. But these powers, they are… difficult."

"Nobody said this job was easy," I said. "To wield these powers, one would require indomitable will, and cosmic imagination."

"Well, I've been told by my peers back home that I am a little lacking in the imagination department," the Princess laughed nervously.

"Better fix that soon then," I said.

"Status, 63," Princess Star called out. "Any sign of Fire?"

"Negative," he replied. "His powers evade me. I can't understand it. If he is a giant then surely he cannot just up and vanish into thin air, could he?"

"Keep searching," Princess Star said. "We promised you to find him and restore your universe. I intend to keep that promise."

"Thank you all."

"Yes, about that…" I scratched my head. "I have been… looking into your universe a little bit more, 63. From the moment I saw you. Well – I looked into all of your universes, to know who I am working with in my Corps."

"Why? Looking for a tourist attraction?" Princess Star said.

I ignored her and continued:

"Your mother… her name is Moon Butterfly, yes?"

63 nodded his head.

"And your father… he is King River?"

"A brave king of the Johansen family," he said.

"It just doesn't add up," I said.

"Pardon?" He raised his eyebrow.

"Princess Star, Quasar, me," I explained, "we three girls come from a world whose queens are also that of Moon Butterfly. Though my mother isn't technically a queen, she is Luna Caterpillar. Same difference I suppose."

"Go on."

"Well… I've done a scan of a lot of the neighboring universes, and it is the most peculiar thing I've seen. The data shows a pattern. There are many Star Butterflys out there. Some of them females, some of them males. But every single one of the male Stars has a male Moon Butterfly king and a female queen River. Everyone – except you."

63 stood up anxiously, crying out with confusion:

"What do you mean exactly?"

"Well…" I went back to tinkering with my bell, "I can't say for sure yet until we restore your universe and I have a thorough scan of it. But there is a possibility here that your universe wasn't supposed to be the way it was. Or perhaps you aren't supposed to be the way you are. If you know what I mean. The multiverse is going to need a lot of fixing, and you or your universe might be on that list."

63 stood there in place, dropping his wand on the floor. The weight of the weapon was immeasurable, like a black hole sucking everything down to its core, and yet it was nowhere near as heavy as the heft of his heart.

"I… I… need… I need some air…" he stuttered, leaving the room to the other side where Metal and the Giant Unicorns resided.

I may not show it on my face, but it was difficult to watch. I did the best I could delivering the truth of the data I gathered. Now it was up to him to deal with the result.

"Poor thing," MonStar commented. "I wish there is something we could do."

"I understand that pain all too well," said Princess Star. "To be under the pressure of the Allmother. The way the monarch makes you feel like no matter what you do you could never in a million years live up to the perfection of the standards set before you. He must have it bad where he comes from. How can a boy be queen of Mewni? The people must hate him and his family for not producing the heir they expected. You too know of this hate, don't you MonStar?"

"Hate might be too strong a word," I said. "The result is what matters. His people must be mad to condemn him for the traits given to him at birth. Some people may condemn him, but all of them? Highly unlikely."

"You never know with the multiverse," said Princess Star. "These things… it happens."

Before we could move an inch, faster than the winds of thought, the speed of our magic, a portal exploded the room we were in, sending all of us flying off to all four directions. The magic portal was powerful, somehow penetrating my energy shield. Not possible, the shield was always constant. What could possibly be powerful enough to bypass them?

I flew so far away, taking a massive hit from this burst of energy. So much so that I was certain a few bones inside me was cracked right off like a pile of twigs. Bruises on my head, aching on my back. The Princess and MonStar didn't seem like they faired any better than I. Doing their best to stand up and regain their balance from this explosion. Who in the name of Inwem had this kind of power? Who even had the knowledge to locate this space beyond space, this time beyond time?

The answer may surprise you.

"Damn it, Maro-ii," a distant voice shouted from the light, "this isn't the vault. Where have you taken us?"

"I don't know, Bunny Beard. I punched in the boss man's coordinates and here we are. What is this place?"

"Well, I guess we can still make it a profitable day's work from this mistake. Grab that monster girl, we be taking her as ransom."

"NO!" I bellowed from the bottom of my lungs, trying to command my bell to me. But something was blocking the energy flow.

"Ho, look at what we have here, she trying to fight back there, Bunny Beard."

"Who… who are you people?" I coughed, still struggling to see straight.

The three shadows of the light portal stood there, laughing. One of them approached me, pulling me by my hair so that I could get a good look. By the books, I could not believe it!

Bloody pirates. Bloody space pirates!

The Black Star Raiders.

I heard of these rapscallions before, bunny pirates – they too knew how to dimension hop, travel between multiverses. Their home was my home of all places. They had been avoiding Inwem's authority for years. They traveled far and wide, stole from both the rich and the poor. Here before me was one bunny with a metal beard and a glowing mechanical right arm. Smuggled weapons, no doubt.

These pirates were powerful, they ransacked an interdimensional armory long ago, coating themselves with powerful armors and plasma weaponry. It was the worst combination possible, these ruthless pirates and those weapons. For too long they would've killed and stolen from all if they could.

And now they could.

The one with the metal beard – whom I assumed was Bunny Beard – glanced at me, scanning my features:

"I know you," he growled. "You're the Caterpillar brat. Fortune has smiled upon us boys!"

"Hooray, captain!"

"If you know what's good for you, you best go back to mommy and cough up five hundred trillion worth of credit. Otherwise, your little monster missy here will be a perfectly suited replacement."

"You dare lay one finger on her," I growled back, "and I'll make sure you get crushed to bits by the biggest black hole I could muster. You hear?"

"Oh," Bunny Beard laughed, "and you plan to do that with your puny magic wand?"

"It's a bell!" I grunted.

"Makes no difference to us," he sneered. "We are not afraid of your magic anymore. We have anti-magic armors now. Nice thing about them is that they absorb energy. Guess what your wand produces. Guess what powers your wand, eh? Come on, it starts with an E, ends with a Y."

"Oh, is it energy captain?"

"That's right Telu-ey, it's energy, good boy. Better cough up that money quick, your majesty. Tick-tock. My blade is sharp."

He tossed my head straight into the pool of magic, and with the next flash of light and a bursting of portal magic – they were gone.

* * *

"This is all my fault," 63 gasped in horror, "if I had been here when it happened… maybe… all my fault… my fault…"

"Don't you even dare say that," I told him, picking myself up and healing my wounds with the bell. "If anything this is my fault, the Black Stars are within Inwem's jurisdiction. Having another day with those thugs run free is another day I consider myself a failure. I will right this wrong, even if it's the last thing I do."

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Princess Star readied her wand, "Let's go!"

I nodded my head, letting the magic flow through me.

"Pull yourself together, 63," I told the boy. "We are Space Warnicorns, we do not back down nor hesitate. The oath we spoke when we put on these capes mean something. Let's not betray what we have sworn."

"Good luck all," the Unicorn known as Metal waved towards us from afar, "oh, how I wish I could directly aid you on your quest."

Opening the portal!

And there we traveled through into the other side, following these pirates into speeds beyond speed, distance beyond space.

But something was wrong.

The space all around us was warping in ways I did not foresee. As we entered from above, from the sixth dimensional bulk, we passed into the fifth dimensional space and there we saw the boat, Reynaldo's Boat. The massive boat and its infinite strands of diverting directions, north, south, east, west, inward, outward, beyond, within, underneath, above, everywhere.

And when you bend space, time must be bent as well. The diverting directions were distorting our travel. Separating the three of us as we flew down into the lower planes. But how? The wands and their energy shields should've protected us from this. Unless…

Unless the pirates had somehow drained the battery.

Impossible.

The one time I didn't double check the battery for tampering. My attempt to make haste had cost us.

And there, shockwaves of powerful light separated us, wrapping us around its fingers and tossing the three of us off into different directions. We were still going down into the three-dimensional bulk, but at different branches.

Before I knew it, my face slammed right down onto the ground.

Red soil. Very peculiar.

The first thought that popped into my head the moment I looked up was: "what is this place?"

Far beyond, far away, nothing but far stretches of red soil and their scarlet sand. Just a barren wasteland – no, not even a wasteland, an empty husk of what was once a barren wasteland. This land looked dead, and yet the bell and my instincts told me otherwise. Something was rumbling deep beneath the ground. A living being? A core about to burst? An underground race of beings? A living planet?

It was difficult to say for sure. But it did not matter much to be frank. Because my mind was not on whether there were creatures on this planet I stood on. Monsters and beasts, I could fight easily. The bigger problem was:

"Bell, where are the other Stars?"

"_Scanning for DNA – scanning – scanning… Star Butterfly of U-SVT1435 detected, approximately five trillion kilometers away."_

"What of the other two? MonStar and 63."

"_Star Butterfly of U-SVT2236 – location unknown. Star Butterfly of U-SVT63 – location unknown."_

"Could be worse I suppose."

"I agree."

Said Princess Star as she rematerialized behind me. Did she fly here from all the way over there? Or did she teleport, I wondered. It made little difference in the end, but I was curious still.

"What is this place?" She wondered, as did I.

"_Scanning current location,"_ my bell answered, "_Found."_

"What planet is this?" I asked.

"_Not a planet,"_ the bell replied. "_A natural satellite – a moon. Approximately 100 billion light years away from this universe's Mewni."_

"A moon?" I raised my eyebrow.

"_Correct – Blood Moon," _said the bell. _"Blood Moon of Universe SVT17."_

"Oh, my Allmother."

"How long will it take for us to reach this Mewni?" I asked.

"_Two minutes, by the use of portals,"_ the bell answered. "_And approximately five minutes by the use of physical flight, after accounting for planets and asteroid fields in the way, not accounting for other obstacles."_

"Then let us go then," Princess Star insisted.

"_Negative,"_ the bell affirmed, "_Energy interference detected. The kinds that disallow transluminal speeds, portal activation and even atmospheric entry."_

"It's the pirates," I said. "This must be their technology. To prevent us from physically stopping them unless we give them what they want."

"They can do that?"

"Their weapons are specifically targeted towards ours," I explained. "It drains our energy, disallowing reality warping. This was calculated."

"Wand," said the Princess, "bring up footage of the pirates on this universe's Mewni."

"_Scanning,"_ said the wand, "_scanning complete. Observe."_

In the space above our heads, there the wand projected its magical orb to reveal the moving images they scanned on Mewni far away. And in the middle of the town square sat the pirates, all armed to the teeth with powerful mechanical armors. Some donning hats and others metal peg legs. They were keeping the townspeople hostage, tying many of them up on a wooden pole – including MonStar.

Something was very off about the citizens of this world, however.

Cats, they were cats. Every single one of them. No bigger than a dwarf, they were anthropomorphic talking felines. Some with very golden bright furs, too. Including their princess – Star Butterfly, who just so happened to have also been tied up together next to MonStar.

"Drat, they got her," I cried.

"Shh, listen."

I observed the orb as Bunny Beard began to approach MonStar.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" Said MonStar, "I am a Space Warnicorn. You just messed with the wrong person, pal."

"Ah yes, the Space Warni-Corps," the pirate captain chuckled. "Everybody heard your little multiversal message, yes. We're just not impressed, is all."

"What?"

"I mean, a bunch of good for nothing arrogant teenagers who think they understand how the multiverse works running around and enforcing their own ideals of morality on the vast majority? That ain't right, ain't right at all. I'm a dishonest thief and a murderer, but at least I'm honest about it."

"You tell 'em, captain."

"Quiet, you buffoon. Let us go now, boss man is waiting for the loot from the vault. Keep this one here tied up and unharmed until her little posse shows up to pay the amount we demanded. Prepare an escape route in the meantime."

"Aye, aye, captain."

I gritted my teeth in rage, knowing this chessboard the pirates had set up. I wasn't exactly mad that he was winning. I was more so infuriated by the idea that this scumbag thought he actually had a fighting chance.

"What do we do now?" Princess Star asked, as I pondered our options.

Let us go to the next best option for now, perhaps something would turn up.

"Bell," I commanded, "scan this moon for anything. Anything at all. No matter how small."

"_Scanning… scanning… 54.3 percent scanned… scanning… located a body nearby."_

"A body? How far?" I asked.

"_Approximately 2 trillion kilometers away."_

"Let us go."

I nodded. And with a flash of light, we opened a portal, pulling us through to the other side where the body was.

Unfortunately, the body was not as alive as I had hoped. It had been laying here for a long time, I could tell. I did not recognize the species of this body, I tried using magic to subconsciously scan his DNA, but nothing turned up. The database of the bell must be incomplete.

His skin was withering and grey, there was a blindfold wrapped around his head, and a large leather cloak covering his body. I rummaged through the contents beneath the cloak, but there wasn't much besides a couple of empty vials and bottles coated in a thick layer of sand and dust. There were some bandages, and few grains of gunpower for some reason. But nothing really useful.

That was, if we didn't find a little silver ring hidden in one of the pockets.

"Take a look here," said Princess Star.

There was an inscription on the ring, it read – _thought flies faster than wind, freer than birds_.

"What do you suppose it means?" She wondered.

But in the end, I thought it could only mean one thing. And the Princess probably would not be fond of it very much.

"Imagination," I said, with the Princess tilting her head in confusion. I explained, "don't you see? This man must have been trapped here long ago, toying with ways of getting off this moon. He obviously wasn't very successful. But this here, this is a hint. Not only on how to get out of here, but also how to defeat the pirates. We need to be more creative."

"Are you sure?"

"Not 100 percent, but close enough," I said. "I'm willing to take the risk."

"Well, I am not. The cost is too high for failure. As leader of the Corps, I order for us to pursue other options."

This girl touched me in the nerve right there, my trigger word, starts with an L. I never liked this girl, but I respected her. I couldn't back down now, however. The Corps needed me.

"The Corps needs strength, imagination and willpower," I replied. "You have strength, perhaps the will. But not the last factor."

"This isn't a problem that requires creativity," she said. "Just a lot of firepower."

"Have you forgotten about the pirates and their armors? They nullify our wands."

"And what if you're wrong? What if they were bluffing? This is the most powerful weapon in the universe."

"A weapon that runs on willpower, and thought, yes. Thoughts that are strengthened by imagination."

"We are going in circles here. You know what? Fine, have it your way. My brain isn't as big as yours, so let's just call it truce here and I'll enter the Moonforce. It shouldn't have come to this, but you forced my hands."

"If you even dare to move an inch towards that mad force, I'll blast a hole in your head so big it'll melt all your innards" I pointed my bell towards the Princess.

"I AM THE LEADER!" The Princess growled, "What I say shall be so."

"Nobody ever voted you leader, we all founded this Corps together, the four of us."

"But I am clearly the most powerful of us all."

"Is that a fact? How about a little game and a little wager then?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"We play a quick game of imagination," I explained. "Winner is the one who overwhelms the other with their willpower. You lose if you hesitate, or if you run dry on creativity, or if your magic construct breaks from weak will."

I saw the flinch in her eyes, even though her glare remained strong on the surface. I got her, played right into my hands.

"Loser must relinquish their title as leader, and follow the plan of the winner," I told her.

The Princess looked on with even greater intensity. Make no mistake, she was strong, her will was sturdy, like the strongest steel. Impossible to break.

But I am Quasar, and I knew many things. Many things of science, many things of the universe. This was a battle in my favor. I shall battle, and I shall win.

"Deal," the Princess said, extending her hand for me to shake. I took that palm with my own firm grip. "Since I am the more powerful of us two, why don't you have the first move?" The Princess went on, continuing to get on my nerve.

"Fine," I cleared my throat and began, "I am a single water molecule, fresh, hydrogen bonding."

With the magic of my bell, I conjured up a construct of these tiny molecules, floating within a vast river flowing down to a mighty waterfall, overlooking a vast kingdom stretching beyond the horizon. What will you answer with now, Princess?

Her answer?

"I am a fire, burning beneath a hot pan, water evaporating."

With the strength of her wand, she conjured up a construct of an entire sun, shining down unto a metal field of water, immediately boiling all of it into the air, causing unimaginable drought across the lands. She surprised me, to think she would dare use fire against water. Had I underestimated this girl?

No, I couldn't have.

With a scowl on my face, I focused the energy into my bell, crying out:

"I am the first Mewman, fire conquering, first of many to come."

An image of the first one came upon the light, it made me wonder about the possibility of creating highly sentient, highly intelligent life with the bell. But I must now focus on this battle.

There the girl retaliated:

"I am a bear, man eating, child of the trees."

The bear mauled violently at this primitive early man, eating away at his bones, his flesh. He was defenseless, and weak. This bear wasn't merely a singular bear, this was the very Platonic form of this animal. I believed then I understood how her offense worked. I must readjust my strategy.

"I am a barren wasteland, fishless, foodless, bear killing."

The land of grass crumbled into dust, whisking away on the winding wind. There the animals around began to die, the fish began to scatter for other rivers, and the big monsters and predators began to starve.

"Didn't think I'd make it this far, did you?" Princess Star smirked, just when I had thought she had began to sweat. The girl smiled on, "I am a massive flood, grass feeding, god willing."

The wind of the flood grew strong, covering an entire planet. It was beyond comprehension.

So that's how you played huh? I thought to myself. Very well. Behold.

"I am the first kingdom of man, god disobeying, god killing."

And there a whole construct of a kingdom, men, women, monsters, sinners of all kinds. Fallen out from the graces of the Lord by their own will, by their own desire, by their own vices.

Her smile suddenly disappeared, not because she was worried – she was angry.

"You cannot kill god that easily."

"Watch me!"

"Very well, I am War," there the Princess conjured up a massive construct of a multiversal titan, the titan stood tall, and her spear was long, pointing down towards the battlefield of the sinful kingdoms. "War – everlasting, brutal and bloodthirsty, but necessary."

"Necessary? That is a wicked view," I said. "I shan't have any of it. Who is this titan? How do you know of her?"

"I learn fast," she glared at me, "these new gifts of magic, and the wisdom from Moonforce."

"You shall be pampered by your Allmother no longer. Unlike you I will earn my position as leader."

With another mighty wave of my bell I raised the magic up high.

"I am the plague, war stopping, death delivering, transferred by the flight of bugs."

There the construct of the warring nations began to wane. As they desperately scrambled about to find a cure, and savior.

This micro scale shall put the battle back to my advantage. One must be able to think big and small to be truly creative. And it showed, sweat was beginning to drip down her forehead, I got you now.

"I am a great spider," she grunted at me, "THE great spider, web weaving, bug catching, insect devouring."

Her magic constructed a powerful web, trapping all of the disease-ridden mosquitos in its horrible embrace. Just as I calculated. You were predictable, too predictable.

"Is that really all you got?" It was now my turn to smirk. "I am a snake, the opposer, the tempter, spider eating, structure destroying."

There my bell constructed a demonic creature, incredibly large and powerful. With its sharp and poisonous fangs it tore down buildings, spreading through nations and peoples. It would not stop, even if it wanted to.

Her desperation was beginning to show, she was going right into the palm of my hand. The battle was as good as mine now.

"I am a planet," she replied, "a world beyond worlds, kingdom beyond kingdoms, life nurturing, temptation rejecting."

The flood of magic poured from her wand, and then an entire planet began to flourish. The animals ran, the trees grew, kingdoms after kingdoms built, harmonizing with one another like a spider web. There it was, I saw it, I saw through her tricks. This shall be a cake walk from now on.

"I am a supernova," I summoned forth, "all destroying, worlds collapsing."

This explosion was unlike any other we had faced before. This wasn't merely an energy blast, it was my fury. Rage cast down to the mortal plane of this magical construct. Taking the lives of billions. Were they innocent? Perhaps, but that did not matter. The battle must go on. What will you do now, Princess?

"I am a black hole," she commanded, sweating nervously, "all consuming, stars collapsing."

Good, the final beats drew nearer and nearer. I shall now strike.

"I am the Allmother," I retaliated with a vicious grin on my face, "all powerful, all demanding, life controlling, queens conquering, kingdoms bow before me, animals shall lick at my feet, daughters shall serve in my name, and power is I."

I knew that struck a nerve with her as the construct materialized right in front of us. The woman stood tall, towering above the two of us, in her palm an entire bubble – a universe. She must have been insulted I was sure. That frown on her face, that grimace, there was no mistake about it. Yes, Princess, I dared to do it.

The girl clenched tight her wand, waving it up, thus unleashing equal power of rage.

"I am New Mewman Science, Metaphyiscal, New, abstract, dense, universes dwarfing, all encompassing, life preserving, power manifesting, formless, heavy, all protecting, all scient."

"What?" I cried aloud.

She dared invoke the name of one of the Metas. Are you mad? I shouted within my mind. Did she not realize how dangerous it was to just invoke a mere name of one so far above us all? But then I realized – this was merely vengeance, nothing more, nothing less. Provoking the force I held dear, the force I worshipped. Her will was strong, and she too dared to do what others would not.

I must compose myself, think better. I must not allow myself to lose to her of all people. Your will was strong, it carried you far when your creativity was bankrupt, that I could not deny. This Princess was by far the strongest opponent I had ever faced.

"I am strings," I commanded my bell, "tiny subatomic strings of the universe, small, vibrating, echoing, the symphony of the cosmos, multi-dimensional, fundamental, train surrounding, and abstract containing – deicidal."

They were so small, so tiny in fact, no apparatus on most of the infinite Mewnis out there could feasibly observe them. The construct of my magic made the visual possible, but no mistake, they were all around us, impossibly miniscule, and yet important. None of you could see, but I came from Inwem. Observe my world's science as the roaring of the train echoed on.

"I am…" the Princess closed her eyes, the first sign of hesitation, "the universe, the multiverse, the omniverse, all that was, all that is, and all that will ever be, I am all, life containing, gods, worlds, kingdoms, men, monsters, magic – I am."

And there, you fell right into my plan. Now you shall pay for that insult. Your construct was powerful, yes. I saw planets, stars, infinite stretching in length, flying far beyond systems, uncountable, and impossible to comprehend. You were strong.

But now, behold my wrath.

"I am Death – Merciful, Cruel, all the same, the opposite of Life, the darkness of the end, the full embrace of the Infinite Spectrum of Chaos, the end of all things, living, dead, real, Dream, the end of universes, deities, kingdoms, monsters, men, EVERYTHING! What will you be then? Can you be anything? Face it, I've won."

The darkness of my bell surrounded her, she struggled immensely, shielding her eyes from the black mists, the sweat dripping down her forehead. It was clear, I was the victor, no question about it. I had fully established myself as the most powerful of us all, and now she must yield. YIELD!

And yet…

To my confusion, her eyes flung wide open. She struggled greatly, the weight of the darkness and Death was almost too much for her magic to carry. She should've collapsed by now, and still – she pressed on.

One final breath, one final thought, one last sliver of will – she commanded:

"I am heart… I am soul… indestructible, immortal made through sentience, altruistic, good… human… endless, everlasting, the center of God's kingdom, beyond multiverses, beyond time, beyond thought, beyond emotions, beyond evil… beyond everything…"

"WHAT?"

Impossible.

The light of her magic blinded me, shattering the darkness and death of my bell. Tossing me right across into the ground. How?

How could this happen? I planned for everything.

What do I do now? What can I do?

My hand shook, trembling as my magic began to drain. That was all I had. How could I have lost? How? How? How?

The Princess answered me that question by instantly collapsing on the ground, her construct vanished into thin air, her muscles trembled just as I myself. I realized there and then, this was no easy victory for her.

She never even once tapped into the Moonforce.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Star 63 part 2**

"GUYS, GUYS, can you hear me?" I shouted towards the image on the orb, "Come on, you idiots. I have to get there now, those guys need me."

"No, you can't."

A hand reached out from behind, reminding me to stay quiet.

Johnny Blowhole, what happened to you, you party animal? You used to be the party dare extraordinaire, so lively. And now you were missing half your body, with your entire left arm and left leg replaced by robot parts? And they had your Blowhole plugged in with a giant cork, too? What horrible events led you to this point?

"You don't mess with Bunny Beard and live to tell the tale, don't do it, Star."

"What am I supposed to do?" I cried, "Just sit here and let the me over there get tied up and tortured? I don't think so. I'm rescuing me and my Corps member."

"You don't understand, Bunny Beard is dangerous. This isn't the only Star Butterfly he has captured."

"What did you say?"

"Bunny Beard has been harvesting Star Butterflys from countless alternate realities. Robbing them of their magic wands. It is what's been powering their energy absorbing armors."

"That's horrible."

"Yes, he's been draining the Stars of their life energy, taking them as his own."

"Why?"

"Because Star Butterflys are dangerous, they are powerful. It is not only their wands that make them deadly."

"But what does he have to gain from doing this?"

"I do not know, sorry. All I know is we are doing this under the orders of the boss man. The boss man never shows his face. He wants to get access to some sort of vault in the Comet Galaxy a few universes away. I've been wondering what's in that vault for days now."

"Shh, quiet!" I grabbed Johnny's head, pulling him down behind the barrels we were hiding behind upon hearing mechanical footsteps from afar. Those armored pirates were still searching for me and their mole. I could only imagine what they'd do to Johnny if they find out he had betrayed them.

The situation was not ideal, Bunny Beard had stations and men across half the planet, if they so much even see a strand of hair from my head they'll immediately alert headquarters, putting all of Mewni in full lockdown. If that happens, nothing will be able to enter or leave the atmosphere. I must find a high enough place in hopes to get out of the pirates' magic disrupting fields, maybe I could open a portal and yank those two idiots from the other side. The disruptor fields cover much of the planet, I was still able to do small scale magic, but anything that could turn the tide of battle was out of the question.

The Flag Hill will have to do. If I could sneak past these guards and get on its peak, I should be far away enough from the disruptor field to have my full power back again, then I'll be able to open a portal.

"You're not thinking about fighting the pirates, are you?" Johnny grabbed my hand, "They're really scary. Why don't you just be like me, make like a fish and flop around. Surely they'll pity me enough to leave me be."

It pained me to see him stoop so low. I simply could not bear it. I gave him a warm smile, and patted his shoulder.

"Don't let other people push you around, Johnny. It's not right. I'm not saying to retaliate in full force, because you have to be smart about this. But don't be too nice about it, either. Be nice, but not too nice."

"Oh…"

"Stay here, Johnny. Once I get the portal open, we'll come up with a plan together to take down the energy fields. From then, we attack Bunny Beard. You'll be free – forever."

"Free?"

"Keep your head low, and don't attract any attention. I'll be back, I promise."

But from the skies there rained down fires, flames of power cosmic. What on earth? It was difficult to see what it was from this distance. But perhaps I still had enough power to enhance my vision.

"Wand, zoom in," I commanded. And sure enough it worked. But I had to strain myself much harder than before.

I could not believe what I was looking at, glancing through the plasma gem of my wand.

A raging fireball engulfing a big space right above the planetary energy absorbing shield. What was this fireball? I must know its nature, so powering through and enhancing my vision further was what I had to do. Looking closer, I saw clearly at the center of the engulfing flame, and in shock I kept on staring, holding my wand in front of me for a good long minute – Princess Star's and Quasar's unconscious lifeless bodies, they flew towards us, intending to enter the atmosphere with great force, and they weren't even aware of it.

Truly, the wonders and magic of the wand never ceased to bewilder. Its limits even now were still a mystery to me. There were so many things I had yet to try out, so many possibilities. Here before my eyes I witnessed inner defenses the wands possessed that I wasn't even aware of. Or was this merely the byproduct of Quasar's and the Princess's immense level of willpower?

"Gather the troops," the pirates shouted from afar, "put up your defenses. Those two are not getting through that shield, not today."

The green energy of the shields began shooting up from powerful machines scattered across the kingdom, echoing with a loud vibration, shaking the very ground with the drills the pirates had planted underneath. The steel of these behemoths was strong, engineered by the brightest mechanics around.

No, these weren't engineered – they were architected, crafted by great stone masons, perfect forms to rival the abstracta of realms above. Where did these pirates get these powers from?

If I had been there when they took MonStar, none of this would've happened. If I had kept my emotions in check.

No time to think about that now. The pirates were now focusing on this one massive atmosphere entry. The fireball was getting bigger by the minute. I suppose they realized that even with a weapon as powerful as their energy absorbing armors, the Space Warnicorns were still a major threat to their operation.

Why would they realize such a thing, though? If their weapons were invincible, shouldn't they be fearless of our wands?

THAT'S IT!

They were not fearless, and why? The answer was simple – their armors were not invincible. If they were, they would've killed us in the Magic Source right there and then, or better yet they would've taken the ransom by themselves _then_ kill us afterwards. It must have some unknowable weakness, one that even we are not aware of. If my wand was outside the proximity of the energy absorption field maybe I could learn of that weakness by directly asking the wand.

But for now, this information that the weakness existed was enough for me, because it meant the pirates could be prone to distractions. And that – I could use.

I focused my energy into my wand, the flow was weak, restricted by these fields. No doubt they would detect a massive sudden surge of energy and will be able to locate me. But if I separate my magic, splitting into two – if I make it so that they could not tell me apart…

This just might work.

"HEY!" I shouted, stepping out into the open and waving my hands. The pirates were numerous, I would not be able to take them on with my current form.

I gathered my pluck, and carried on regardless of that risk, shouting:

"You carrot heads looking for me? Come and get me then, I'm hanging on a stick here!"

They noticed me alright, seemingly more annoyed at the carrot comment more than the fact that a Space Warnicorn was here. Perfect – you idiots walked right into my trap.

They started charging towards me, wielding their plasma swords and pistols, one of them even wore a full body canon attached onto his chest, it was heavy and could deal much damage I was sure. Their ferocity was overwhelming but the same fierce spirits blinded them, because they hadn't even noticed that the one standing where I was wasn't even the real me.

"HEY!" I called from the opposite side of the battlefield, catching their attention once more, "Over here numskulls!"

Thus – they finally saw the trick, two Star Butterflys.

I wasn't powerful enough to conjure up a perfect clone of myself, so the mirage won't be able to physically engage in combat against these pirates. But the clone did possess enough inner magic within to keep up this image, and to fool any sensory device the pirates may have lying around.

And if I were to create three clones? Four? Seven, eight, ten? Switching up the clones' appearances a bit to fool them into thinking there were more Warni-Corps members than they initially thought? It will be the perfect distraction for me to dart right towards the architecture holding up the shields, and deactivate them entirely.

"Which one of 'em is the real one?"

"Must be the one over yonder, I'm sure."

"No, the other one you idiots. I saw it with me own eyes."

"Shut up you fools, stay together now."

I smiled at their confusion. I couldn't help myself.

"What's wrong you guys?" I shouted out, laughing. "Try to keep your heads on your shoulders now – if you can."

"Why you little…"

Time to go.

With great momentum, I ordered the clones from my thought to scatter off in all directions, and they obeyed as such, just like happy little worker bees working for their queen. They fled off wielding a clone version of the magic wand. It did no damage, but it did create illusions and fake explosions. Strange pink sparkles bursting off from the ground, lighting diamond lights blinding them left and right, and the loud vibration of the mirage vibrating within their ears. They began to scramble – and then… they began to panic.

I did not need long, just a few minutes at most. Because the machine holding up their shield was just a few more seconds away, I was dashing as fast as could, even with the magic slowly draining my body it shouldn't be long now.

At least…

That was what I thought.

Until I felt the cold metal touch of a giant palm gripping at my left shoulder.

I could feel his heavy aura and glowing breath without even needing to turn around. He was angry, normally it wasn't possible to tell with the cold touch, but this was his mechanical arm, not his real arm. It wasn't possible to hide the heat of his breath and the clanking of his metal beard however, that was much more obvious.

"You may be able to play my men," he growled from behind, "but I see through your tricks. I can see through your magic – your highness. I've been watching those Caterpillars put my men behind bars from the shadows all my life, you really think I couldn't tell the real one from a fake? You all reek of ego."

I was so close. But there was no time to lash out, think! What to do to get out of this predicament…

"Did you forget that our technology could absorb your magic?" Said Bunny Beard. "If it can absorb it, then it can also take those powers to amplify our own. You dare mess with me, captain of the Black Star Raiders?"

His taunt triggered something inside of me, a strange instinct I did not know of, prompting me to do something that I probably would regret later on. In retrospect, it really was not well advised.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

"Well, you see," I smirked, "I couldn't care less what you are. To me, you're all just filthy pirates. Thieves not worthy of any name."

It instantly got on his nerve, I could clearly tell, there was no hiding that from his bloody red eye. It was obvious these pirates were desperate to make their mark on the multiverse. Working under this mysterious boss of them must hurt their pride, or at the very least Bunny Beard's pride.

I suppose… I could relate to that feeling. The Corps was still new, young, ambitious.

I could almost forgive the pirate for all that he had done.

Almost.

"You're going to get what's coming to yer, ya brat!" His massive mechanical fist winded upwards into a twisted spiral, channeling great energy into the steel, and there the hinges of his shoulder thrust downward with great force. This punch was like a shooting star, too fast to react, too heavy to lift.

"Try and dodge it if you can!" He cried. "I am not afraid of magic anymore! I'm not afraid of anyone! Nobody is going to keep me down any longer. I'll be a king! With nobody bossing me around. You annoying brats are children, CHILDREN! How _dare_ you impose your will on us? This ain't no playground, you're going to die here today, I'll make sure of it myself."

Little did he know, of course… heh…

This was what I was planning on from the very beginning.

I just hoped whatever little magic I had left was enough to keep me from biting the dust.

The heavy steel met furiously with the side of my cheek. With my magic eyes I could basically see this whole scenario in slow motion. As such, the pain, too, was slow moving, gradually traveling from the tip of where it touched through the skin cells, carrying the shockwaves deeper within into the bones where it began to shatter the pieces inside.

It hurt like Underworld. But I must endure. Nothing a little magic couldn't fix after the battle. Easier said than done, however. Because the punch shook me so hard it sent me flying, lifting me right off the ground against the will of gravity, like an old slapstick cartoon or a puppet show of sort.

"Today is the day you die," the pirate cried, "I'll… what the…"

The mad bunny got too caught up in the moment he did not even notice the crack in his suit of armor, the metal crumbling into bits from his mechanical arm, squeezing up like a crushed lemon, or a thin sheet of foil. The impact of the implosion forced him on his knees, dragging him into the depths of gravity and weight.

"What is this?" The pirate shouted, desperately trying to pull himself up, "How? Our technology was invincible!"

"That's where your arrogance failed you," I said, doing my best to stand up and work through the pain, I was certain my jaw had been dislocated at this point. "If you were truly invincible, you wouldn't have scrambled to put up this whole shield. That's a little too much effort, don't you think? You're afraid, aren't you?"

And that right there was the secret, there were imperfections. The armors' durability was finite because it was mortal, as such it could never compare to an infinite source of power. Absorbing it was one thing, but to utilize them in the same extent as an extra dimensional magic wand was another.

"You've been absorbing magic from so many Stars, haven't you?" I tried to smirk through the pain. "I hope in Mewni's name you're not dumb enough to make your armors all interconnected with one another."

The numerous architectures holding up the barriers protecting the sky dispersed as soon as the machines began catching fire, the cogs overlapping one another halted in their steps, pushing against each other in opposite forces. Diverting the flow of energy while draining all armors within the vicinity for a total reboot of the entire system.

And in the next blink of an eye, faster than the winds of thought, both the meteor that were Princess Star and Quasar came crashing down unto this plane, denting the ground with their mighty impact. The bunny pirates flew right off, as if they were feathers disturbed by a light gust of wind. Their armors were less than useless at this point once Bunny Beard's main commanding armor shut down, they might as well be wearing paper for all the good it'll do.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!"

Bunny Beard slammed his fist onto the ground, still injured from the massive blast that ruptured his arm. He shrieked towards the sky, consumed by desperate madness:

"I'll suck you all dry, believe you me, I'll be master of the universe, I'll steal you all, I'll, I'll…"

Before he could even get up, his fist was grabbed and twisted tight like a cork of a wine bottle. She stood there, mighty as ever, and brimming with powerful magic.

"Heh… you're right… Quasar… you… are right… I have defeated you in our duel, but it does not mean you are wrong."

Her cape flew brilliantly as the dust of the impact cleared, and there I saw clear as the crystal sky her shimmering fiery eyes, glowing with power excess.

"I need to tackle this foe with strategy… creativity… but my victory still means something… it means we must synthesize, combine our views."

"Stop babbling you stupid brat and let me go," Bunny Beard struggled to get free, while simultaneously I could see the Princess's energy being slowly absorbed into his broken armor. The main commanding armor Bunny Beard wore must the most powerful of them all, even now when the system was rebooting it was still capable of absorption.

But then the Princess did something unthinkable that day.

She smirked at the impossible enemy:

"Fighting head on… he would win… 100 percent of the time. But what if… what if I do not engage him in this fight? What if instead… I will the power stolen away back to me? The machine's willpower cannot equal mine, because it has no will, it is but steel and wires… mine…"

"LET GO!"

"By the power of the Moonforce I command thee to return to me."

And just like that, the water of the river flowed up the stream, up the waterfalls, against the pull of gravity. Back into the veins of the Princess where there she held her wand high, blasting its gloriously light to every corner of the land. No shadow shall exist in the presence of this power, and thus it was so.

"No, no, no. My power, my armor, my energy!"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!"

The Princess raised both hands towards the heaven, she had triumphed:

"I AM INVINCIBLE!"

"No, you're not, not if I have anything to say about it, and I do!" Bunny Beard yanked out from his shirt pocket a small switchblade, waving it at the Princess as a final last-ditch effort.

But then, peculiarly, Princess Star stopped paying him any attention, instead looking at something looming over the bunny, casting a massive shadow over him. Bunny Beard's confusion briefly calmed his nerves, only enough to prompt him to turn around and proceed down a spiral of emotional wreckage, shrieking out in great horror the figure who stood before him.

"BOSS?"

The figure did not look like a human, perhaps a monster? One who dressed in shadowy drags with his large leather cloak hanging over his dark coat made of bizarre fabric that almost made it looked like camouflage for the black starry nights. He wore a big cone hat covering his grotesque face that was crumbling with old red skin and white scraps of what used to be a full beard, the hat honestly made him look like a wizard. Wrapped around his head was a dirty white rag acting as some sort of a blindfold.

And when he smiled – he bore his fangs for all to see, unashamed and confident.

I did not recognize this person, but what was shocking to me was that Princess Star did.

"You," she pointed her finger. "You were supposed to be dead. We found your body on the Moon. How did you get here? Who… who are you?"

"Boss… Boss, please… please… we just need a little more time… we'll get into the vault, I swear on me mother's name."

This strange being merely replied with a smirk:

"I am – a demon. I am looking for a lunar eclipse… a… _rising eclipse…_"

"What?" Princess Star squinted her eyes while Bunny Beard remained speechless. The so-called demon continued:

"So you are the new authority around here, eh? The Space Warni-Corps if I remember right? The… what do you kids call it… the space cops?"

"I… I suppose we are," said Princess Star with her energy drastically powering down. It was shocking to see her maintain sanity after entering the Moonforce. Perhaps if she only used it in short bursts – she would not be too far gone.

"Good… good…" the demon smiled, not even paying Bunny Beard any attention. "So are you folks good with the clean up here, or should I stick around to help? These pirates are a handful I'm sure, they are one dangerous bunch."

"What are you talking about?" Princess Star asked. "Are you not the boss of these pirates?"

"I'm only here to make sure you at the very least put these bozos behind bars," the demon laughed on disgustingly, "the look on their faces are hysterical."

Bunny Beard sat there frozen in infinite shock, and it was just more fuel for the demon to keep on laughing.

"I knew if I gave them the wrong coordinates they would no doubt run into you kids," said the demon. "They didn't even question it one bit. Just punched the numbers into their teleporter and boom."

Princess Star stood there, still wielding her wand tight. She seemed as though she was still suspicious of this creature, not knowing who he was, or even what he was. But it seemed, to me at least, that he posed no threat to any of us. Perhaps what he said was true, he really was trying to help.

"Well then, if none of you kids know of any eclipse then I best bid you farewell."

"We still have questions," said the Princess.

"Another time I'm afraid."

"What if I stop you from leaving? I have the most powerful weapon right here, I can do it."

"You'll find it ineffective, your majesty. I myself am not unfamiliar with the craft, you see."

"There is no convincing you then?"

"Afraid not. My time is precious. But hey, look on the bright side. This is still a very profitable day's work, your majesty. All those Star Butterflys captured by the pirates, they're potential new recruits for your Corps are they not?"

"Hmm…"

"With that I must bid you adieu."

The demon slashed open the thin air in front of him to pry out a portal swirling with red energy. He stepped right through into the dark void beyond, closing it behind him as he left.

Over where the countless Star Butterfly hostages stood, in the middle of this crowd of blond teens sat an old man with six fingers. He was unconscious, unaware of where he was, or how he got here.


	9. Chapter 9

**Check out my Gravity Falls fic, Gravity Falls - Cold Starry Winter to find out what Ford was doing before this chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 9: MonStar part 2**

_"State your name for the record."_

The old man sighed:

"_Stanford Pines."_

_"Place of residence?"_

_"Gravity Falls, Oregon… of Earth?"_

_"I'll just put you down for Universe GF12. Species?"_

_"Homo sapiens, I guess, though I may have two-dimensional matrices imbedded in my blood. Must've picked it up when I visited the two-dimensional dimension. Only found out about it a few months ago."_

_"Right, I'll make a mental note of that."_

Quasar was a very calculating, cautious person. That I learned from watching her work. Everything must be organized and ordered correctly. This old man was the odd one out of the new bunch of Star recruits we gathered from the pirates. That I could understand. Mom was a very orderly person, too. Marco called it OCD I think?

What really boggled my mind on the other hand was the slight tone of grim and fear in her voice. The six fingered old man had not noticed it yet, but I sure did. Spending time around her all this time let me pick up a few quirks from the other founders. She would often ring her bell at a four seconds interval instead of the usual three, and her lips would purse ever so slightly.

Did she know something about that box that I did not?

"Who did you say you kids were again?" Asked Stanford.

"We're the one asking the questions here," Quasar snapped back, to which I immediately stepped in:

"Calm down now, let's not antagonize anybody. We have enough enemies as it is. Apologies, mister. We're still kind of new at this whole thing. I'm Star Butterfly, this is Quasar Caterpillar. And we're the Space Warni-Corps."

"Warni-what?"

"It's a pun on warnicorns," I smiled.

"Hmm… that does ring a bell," he said.

"Well, it should," said Quasar. "We sent out a multiversal message not long ago, it should travel beyond time and space."

"Fascinating," he scratched his chin.

"We are getting off track, however. Please, MonStar, do not interfere in official business unless you have something productive to add to the procedure."

"Look, I don't know who you think I am, but I assure you, you got the wrong guy."

"Is that a fact?" Quasar raised her eyebrow, "Wanted criminal across multiple galaxies? Stretching across beyond from the borders of Lottocron 9 to Universe GF52? A quick search of your record already let me know everything I need to know."

"How did you…"

"Sixth dimensional magic wand," Quasar cut him off, showing him her bell, "most powerful weapon in the universe. Get used to it."

"Listen here!" Stanford slammed his fist on the table, "You kids don't understand what's at stake here. If I don't get back to my home dimension soon, my brother's going to be iced, literally!"

"Let's back up a bit here and get one thing straight," Quasar stared down the old man, unafraid of the difference in size between an adult and a teen, "I do not care whether or not you are a criminal. We are spread thin enough as it is, whatever you did is probably petty compared to what we have on our plate."

"I don't know why, but I feel a little insulted," Stanford sat back down.

"What I want to know…" Quasar pulled from underneath the table a peculiar rectangular shaped cuboid looking device with insanely intricate circuits glowing brightly on its surface, "… is why you have a Mother Box in your possession."

The box was glowing with mysterious energies, it was almost as if the device was actually alive. Laying there dormant, still, waiting, deep in its slumber; contemplating some truths I was not aware of. I felt its uneasy eyes upon me, even though I knew for a fact it was nonsense – boxes are objects, and objects don't have eyes… or at least… that was what I thought.

"I don't know what this thing is," said Stanford. "One moment I was being pulled into a swirling portal, the next I was drifting in endless space with this thing in my hand. That's when you ran into me."

"What exactly is this thing, if you don't mind me asking?" I grabbed on Quasar's shoulder, only to have her shake her head in grim solemnity.

"I do not know," she answered, to my absolute surprise.

"What did you say?"

"If you don't know then what are you arresting me for?"

She explained:

"I do not know – because the magic wand does not know."

"But… that's impossible," I said. "The wand knows… well… everything."

"Evidently not," said Quasar. "You ever heard of the New Gods?"

I shook my head.

"Neither have I," she replied, "and that is a cause for concern. When I laid hands on the Mother Box, she told me who she was, said that she came from the Fourth World of the New Gods. It is the first I have ever heard of them. She would not tell me more about them after pressing the matter. Even if this old man is innocent, I simply cannot let him go, for practical purposes. You understand, don't you, MonStar?"

"Well…"

"Hmm…" Quasar glanced back behind the glass window in this room, towards where the other Stars were, "hold that thought for a moment. Do me a favor and go check on the others, yeah? I want to know what's going on."

"Why don't you do it yourself? I'll keep the interview going," I said.

To which she responded by shaking her head:

"Can't, orders from the Princess. A deal is a deal. I have to do the paperwork she assigned and all the heavy lifting."

"You seriously have to tell me what happened back there on that Blood Moon."

"Are you going to do it or not?"

"Hmm, fine, but don't rough up the old man too bad, you hear? I'm going to teach you about a new revolutionary idea called kindness when I get back."

"I'm not that old, you know?" Said Stanford.

"Also do me a favor and don't forget to fill out your paperwork perfectly," she told me as I was leaving. "And when I say perfect, I mean per-fect, with a capital P. The Prissy Princess is very annoying on that front. You make one mistake and she's going to force the both of us to start from scratch. Mostly me though, she'll give you a pass for sure, for some strange reason."

"I'll make sure my handwriting is perfect then."

Ah, new recruits. Our work up until this point had finally started to pay off. We were still understaffed, the multiverse's size remained massive, and not all of the Stars we rescued from the pirates were willing to join. But a total of five new recruits was not a bad start in my book.

The first was Cat Star of Universe SVT17. She was the first to take up on our offer of joining the Corps. She did not hesitate one bit to take the oath, for she knew she was princess of her world, and many felines of Mewni were defenseless against the forces of Evil. She witnessed firsthand cruelty done upon her people, refusing was not an option. We shared a kindred spirit for that, one I shall never forget.

Then there were Star Lucitor and Star Avarius, very curious these two Stars. But if there was a version of myself who was a daughter to a barbarian River Johansen then I suppose anything was possible. The Lucitor girl bore a striking resemblance to Tom back home. Ah, Tom, what a sweet boy he was. He was always supportive of me, a very meek, quiet young man, but incredibly thoughtful and caring. I felt similar vibes with the Avarius girl as well, very much resembling Ludo, son of Lord Brudo. We knew each other back home, too. We monsters had to stick together and look out for one another. Our royal status meant much less compared to our Mewman peers. I wondered then what Ludo was up to at this very moment, was he and his family safe in hiding? I must complete this mission quickly, to return home and free my people.

The last two of the new recruits made me scratch my head, however. Something about them didn't sit right with me. Star of SVT491 and Star of SVT8391, lovingly nicknamed Business Star and Super Star by 63. Business Star was neat, tidy, tied her hair back into a nice tail, and wore a sleek looking black suit with a red tie around her neck. She said little since she first got here other than her initial raising of her hand to volunteer for the Corps and other small talks. I had absolutely no idea what her endgame was.

But I was certain it had something to do with Super Star. Bizarrely, this Star wore a skintight yellow spandex suit made of uniquely bright polymer, printed on her chest was the symbol of the initial S, and on her shoulders was a blue cape flowing in the wind as she hovered above the ground. I could sense great magical prowess from her even before she took up the sixth dimensional wand we handed out. She wore a strong smile when she first volunteered, determined and strong. How the pirates managed to contain her brightness and strength was beyond me.

That all came crashing down the moment she met Business Star, instantly, the smile disappeared. In its place was a sense of animosity, anger, the touch of hatred, feelings that I could not comprehend. I asked Super Star if the two had met before, but she told me this was the first time she had ever seen Business Star.

"I am glad to be a part of this organization, fellow Star Butteflys," Super Star said as she flew around shaking everybody's hands. "My world, too, has been terrorized by powerful and… _heinous _villains for far too long. I shall help your cause, in order to secure a future for my people, my family."

"How noble," said Business Star. "Your world could be dead already for all we know, just like that, poof," she snapped her fingers, "in a blink of an eye."

"Not if we shield them away from prying eyes using our sixth dimensional magic," Princess Star joined in, to clear things up. "I hope that you all know the meaning of this Corps' oath, the meaning of the word sacrifice."

"If it means that I may keep my mother and father safe," said Star Avarius, "then I will gladly dedicate my life. I may not be able to visit them again, but if that's what it takes."

"Glad to hear," said Princess Star. "The mission ahead will be long, perilous. But I promise you, I will find that Giant Unicorn even if it's the last thing I do."

"Do we have a new lead then?" Star 63 asked.

To which Princess Star shook her head to respond:

"Nothing so far. Which is why I am putting you new recruits on patrol duties. There are many sectors of the multiverse that need to be monitored, many threats to deal with. You'll be working in teams. We founders need to assess how your skills are within the field. You, Business Star, and Super Star, you two will be working with Cat Star here to patrol the sections around the Universes SVT48 to SVT51. Your mission is to find Universe SVT49, which for some mysterious reason had vanished from our maps and tracking devices. You may consult the supercomputer systems we had set up here for any additional information, it is connected straight into the pool of magic, where the bubble universes float off from, so you can monitor directly from the computers. Any question?"

"Yes," Business Star raised her hand, "who shall be the leader of this little team?"

"I'll leave that for you three to decide among yourselves. Prove to me you can work as a unit and come to a logical and efficient methodology. Fail to do so and I might just consider kicking you off the Corps."

"Well… in that case, we better work to the best of our abilities then," said Super Star.

"That's the spirit," I smiled towards them, "good luck you three. I'll be rooting for you. Report back if you find anything. And please do remember the Corps Code – Do not murder, and do not time travel. We are not pirates, murderers or criminals, we are the law, and we follow the Code for the sake of the multiverse and our people."

"Lucitor, Avarius," Princess Star pointed towards the bird and the demon, "you are going to accompany me on a little mission. There is an area in the Fourth Dimensional bulk that needs to be investigated. Ready yourselves, though we wield Sixth Dimensional wands, the gods of the Fourth Dimension are no laughing matter."

"Just say the word," said Star Avarius, "we'll follow your lead."

"Good, we'll be investigating…"

Something interrupted the Princess's thoughts, I was just about to see the first team off on their mission when I instinctively turned my head to face the Princess's wild eyes, wide open with awakening wrath. As if she was mad at herself, disappointed with her own inability somehow. She had always been a prideful one, and it was increasingly more noticeable after that incident on the Blood Moon with Quasar.

But this was a look of denial, refusing to believe she had been bested. Refusing to believe that there was a massive wooden branch stabbed straight through her heart, twisting and turning with magical blood spewing from within.

That was not flowery language from my imagination I often lay down into my diary or anything. There was literally a wooden tree branch that manifested out of nowhere, lodged straight into the Princess's heart, paralyzing her whole trembling body.

"By the Allmother…" she muttered, "I… was right…"

"STAR!" I shouted, "By corn, what's going on?"

"STAY BACK!" She yelled back.

The confusion overwhelmed me, I turned my back for a split second. None of the other Stars said anything or noticed anything off. They were all just as surprised as I was, and yet here we were, as if the branch had manifested out of thin air. My cosmic senses were sharp, too. How could I have missed something so massive and obvious?

"You fools!" The girl began collapsing on the floor, clutching onto the branch twisting in her chest, "You've forgotten what today was! You've forgotten!"

"What are you talking about?" Business Star asked, looking flustered instead of arrogant and grim for the first time since she got here.

"St… st… Stump…"

Before she could finish, another branch manifested out of thin air within less than a blink of an eye, stabbing right at the back of her neck and straight through her throat.

"STAR!"

"I SAID GET BACK!" She insisted, barely able to squeak, mustering the last of her strength, "AS LONG AS MY BRAIN IS INTACT, THIS CAN BE HEALED! Listen close you idiots. We've been far away from home too long, lost… lost track of time. Mewmans are celebrating… their holidays now."

It only struck me now that she mentioned it, we truly had forgotten what today was:

"Stump Day," I gasped.

With the last of her strength, Princess Star wielded her wand tight in her grip, dripping out one final spell before the blood loss overwhelmed her:

"EASY PEASY TIME FREEZY!"

It only hit me then what she was trying to do. I quickly gathered my thoughts, shielded myself and lunged towards the two Stars closest to me, Business Star and Star Lucitor.

"_Brace yourselves!"_ I cried, holding my wand up high and casting a spell around the three of us to protect ourselves from the time stop.

If I had been just a little slower, we all would've probably died.

Frozen time, I had not touched this spell in a long time. Ever since I read it in Skywynne's chapter, and on that one day with Marco trying to nod his head to Jackie. Oh Marco… I wondered what he was doing right at that moment. Probably sitting comfortably at home, eating nachos. I'd love to have some nachos right about now.

It was a surreal sight to behold for sure, seeing everybody in the room frozen in time except for the three of us, they all sat there like statues, living ones. Super Star floating off the ground, strong pose, but still a visible look of confusion.

Avarius on the other hand was much more cautious. She seemed afraid almost, even though we had given her the most powerful weapon in the universe. Still timid, in a frozen pose where she was carefully glancing around, looking for the assailant. It did not seem like the Ludo Avarius that I knew, the foolish, petty, and determined little thing. So perhaps the Avarius inheritance was only that of biological blood, not of spirit or personality.

And the Princess, allowing herself to be frozen as well, to make sure the wound did not spread any further, giving the three of us a fighting chance.

"Fantastic," Business Star sighed, "I might be having second thoughts about my place in this Corps now if this is what my first day is going to be like. First impression isn't great if I'm frank."

"I think this first impression is as accurate as it gets," said Star Lucitor. "We were warned after all that we will be dealing with galactic threats that could easily overpower us given the chance."

"Let's hope that chance never comes," I said as I scanned my surroundings. Princess Star had given us an opportunity to find out where the assault was coming from. Everywhere around this magic room of the Source felt the same. Nothing to indicate an original source from the enemy.

Perhaps I could ask the Giant Unicorns over on the other side of the room; where the bright magical stairs leading down the wall was. Surely if these Giants were so powerful, they must have some knowledge and valuable wisdom on the matter at hand, they existed beyond conventional time and space, too. So the time freeze shouldn't have affected them.

The problem was the moment I stepped foot through into the other side, there was no sign of the Unicorns in sight. Instead, the usual sight of the bustling kingdom of Giants was replaced by an empty forest crawling with dark musty ancient oak with vines tangling all around from the roots deeply planted into the crumbling maggot-filled soil beneath.

When I turned my head around, the room where the magical pool of energy resided was replaced by endless stretches of that same dark forest with mysterious energies flowing through the air. Time was still frozen in place, all the other Stars were still where I last saw them, but how?

How did we get to this strange place?

"What happened?" Star Lucitor asked, "Where are we?"

"In a blink of an eye…" I muttered to myself, "just like what happened to Princess Star… in a blink of an eye."

"How long?"

"What?" I turned over to Business Star.

"How long?" She repeated, "How long do we have within time stop?"

"I don't know," I replied. "The Princess has always been a powerful one, possibly the most powerful Star in the multiverse. Her willpower is immense, in full condition, I think she could've time stopped for as long as we need. I'd say with a giant wooden stake through her heart like this… we have about thirty minutes or so."

"Didn't one of the rules forbids the use of time travel?" Lucitor asked.

"Yes," I said. "But this is technically not time travel, we are not traveling forward or backwards. So it's technically a loop hole, but not really a loop hole. Both Quasar and the Princess probably realized that, so we have this unspoken rule about reserving this as a last resort."

"Why?" Asked Business Star, "Wouldn't it make things much more efficient if all of us are allowed to stop time?"

"It's an issue of trust," I said. "The Corps Code is here to keep our powers in check. Maybe you haven't noticed, but Quasar and the Princess do not like each other. Not one bit. They are too prideful, so they wait patiently to call out whoever's the first to use this powerful ability, because it is a sign of cowardice."

"You seem to be in desperate need of leadership then," said Business Star.

To that – I nodded my head:

"Yes… yes we do."

None of this would matter in the end if we could not figure out how the Stump attacked Princess Star, and where it was hiding. There was no sign of its arrival, and yet its attack was very powerful and precise, requiring very little time to get from point A to point B, wherever point A was. And then there was the peculiar thing of this eerie forest, it seemed alive somehow, and yet no animals were nearby. No doubt this was the work of the Stump.

But did the tree branch strike between a very short time interval? So short that none of us could not hope to react to. Or did it strike within literally no time at all?

What a horrifying ability that would be.

I had to hold that thought for the moment however, something even more bizarre crept up from the corner of my eyes.

And it was that old man Quasar was interrogating.

"What is going on here? Where am I? Why are these kids all frozen?"

Impossible.

"How… how are you still moving, old man?" I pointed my finger in shock. "Is this… the work of the Stump?"

"Stump? What Stump?" He tilted his head. "It is strange though that my watch's stopped working. It's not moving anymore. What exactly is going on here? Am I going to have to get a new watch?"

"It is what it looks like, mister," I told him. "Time has been frozen in place."

"WHAT?" He cried.

"The question is how are you still able to move around?" Business Star pointed her finger.

Stanford shrugged his shoulders:

"Law of Weirdness Magnetism? Must be an electrical field that's still lingering around from my home Earth. Before I got sucked through the portal."

"You better stay where you are, where we can clearly see you," said Business Star. "I don't trust you, because you're not a Star, and I don't want to see any funny busi…"

A loud crackling noise exploded in the distance far behind where Stanford was.

An impossible noise it was. Time was supposed to be frozen. Nothing was supposed to move.

And yet when the four of them turned around, a giant tree branch had manifested out of thin air just as before, stabbing Quasar right through her heart. Quasar's expression remained the same in frozen time, she did not even realize what had happened.

"NO! That's not possible!" I shouted in frustration.

"YOU!" Business Star immediately pointed her finger. "What did you do, old man?"

"Me?" Stanford panicked. "I didn't do anything. That tree branch wasn't there before. Where did it come from?"

"Don't play dumb now! I'll beat the answer out of you if I have to…"

"Stop, Business Star," I commanded. "Now is not the time to assign blame. I don't know this old man, but it's clear to me – he isn't anywhere near as powerful as any one of us Stars. The forces we're dealing with here far exceeds you and me or the entire Corps for that matter. Use your senses, that's what the magic wand is for."

"Hmm…" Business Star quieted down, but she was clearly not happy.

"This gives us even less time to work with now that this has happened," I said.

"What do you mean?" Asked Lucitor.

I explained:

"Under normal circumstances the thirty minute time limit wouldn't be an issue, because we're Star Butterflys. We're holding the magic wand. Once the thirty minute is up, we can just stop time again. But this changes everything. Because now we know that the Stump can move even within frozen time. This is terrifying."

"How is that possible?" Stanford stood back in shock. "Quantum physics should not allow this. How could something move within a place where not even instantaneous teleportation is possible? This goes beyond just breaking the Planck instant, this is breaking natural laws themselves."

"We're running out of time," I said. "We need to come up with a defense right away. Or we need to locate the Stump and go on the offensive. Which option do you think is best?"

"How do we defend against something so fast it could move even within frozen time?" Lucitor asked.

"That is not the question you should be asking," said Business Star. "It does not matter how fast the Stump is moving. As long as we know exactly beforehand where it is going to be, then we have a chance of catching it before it even gets there, before it even considers moving to that spot. Strategy wins over speed."

"How can you be so sure?" I asked.

"Look at the victims so far," she pointed her finger confidently, "there is a clear pattern is there not? So far only Corps leaders have been targeted by the tree branches. If the Stump is so fast it could break the Planck instant, bordering on omnipresence, then it would've done away with all of us already. But it didn't. This shows that either this ability of the Stump's has a weakness like a cooldown period, or it is deliberately choosing to attack in this specific pattern. All we have to do then is…"

And thus, the girl was instantly cut off…

By a massive wooden branch, sharp as a spear, lodged right through her chest, stabbed from behind. None of us saw it coming.

From the expression on her face, it looked as if the girl was more annoyed that the branch had soiled her suit than the fact it had stabbed her. She didn't seem to mind the pain, but instead was insulted.

Ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping…

"What is that noise?" Said Business Star as she worked through the violent coughing, "Turn down… the radio… will you?"

Instinctively, I did the only thing I could think of at that moment. Holding my magic wand tight, focusing with great force to yell out:

"EASY BREEZY, TWO TIME FREEZY!"

And thus, everything began to freeze once more, with me specifically telling the wand to leave me, Lucitor and the old man called Stanford to be unfrozen. I was beyond frightened at this point. Normally I would've tried to heal Business Star with my magic. But so could Princess Star, and she must've had a reason to freeze time instead of healing herself. She must've realized that it didn't matter how fast we could heal these wounds, the Stump will always be faster.

"What did you do?" Stanford stepped back in horror.

"I froze the frozen time world," I said. "Frozen time times two, if you will."

"But why? What good does that do?" Asked Lucitor.

"I… I didn't know… what else to do. But I had to know. It's a hunch, but I have a feeling that the Stump would still be able to move even if we freeze time within the frozen time world. Even if we freeze time a hundred times, the Stump will still be a hundred and one times faster."

"What do we do now?" Asked Lucitor, "Clearly Business Star's hypothesis was wrong. The Stump wasn't just targeting Corps leaders. It's going after all of us."

"But why not finish all of us off at the same time?" I wondered. "The Stump must have a weakness."

"Perhaps the reason this Stump thing could attack us like this is because it has future vision of some sort?" Stanford theorized. "Perhaps it could look into the future and predict the exact location of where each of us will be standing, and then strike preemptively with that information. But maybe the information is incomplete. Maybe the Stump only possesses partial future visions, that's why it is picking us off one by one."

"You know about this ability?" I asked.

"Sort of," he replied. "I once met an oracle, Jheselbraum the Unswerving was her name. She displayed many bizarre precognitive abilities, although I could never tell for sure. I did a lot of research after my encounter with her, and it just makes sense if she has that kind of ability. We cannot rule out the possibility of the Stump having this same power, it is a vast multiverse after all."

"You have a point," I said.

Ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping…

What on earth was making that noise? I wondered to myself. Looking about nervously. But there was nothing around for miles but thick stretches of dark moldy trees, and the remaining Star Butterflys who stood like statues.

"You kids have any more bright ideas?" Said Stanford. "We're about to be skewered any second now."

"I'm working on it," I cried, "if it wasn't for this loud annoying noise in the back."

"I came all this way," Stanford muttered to himself, "I am not dying until I see my grand niece and nephew one more time… no… I won't… huh? What? Um… no… no… shut it!"

"What did you say?" I turned my head.

"I wasn't talking to you," said Stanford, turning his head frantically. "Don't you hear that voice?"

I shook my head.

"It's calling to me…" he said, "calling me Sixer… I… I know that voice. It's not possible! He's supposed to be dead."

It was suspicious, was this the voice of the Stump? I wondered to myself. No… couldn't be. The old man knew the voice, as if they were old enemies – or worse.

Old friends.

With great concentration, I focused my mind onto the wand to enhance my sight and my hearing. With enough magic, I was able to detect a new presence. It was faint, difficult to see, as if it was the dying spirit of a once living being. I could hear its hysterical laugh, a laugh that was trying to cover up a faint feeling of desperation.

The monster was haunting the old man with its all-seeing eye, and yet its power was weak, almost to the point of non-existent. Was it even real? Or just a manifestation of the old man's thoughts?

"_Come on, Sixer," _it said. "_Christmas is just right 'round the corner. You don't wanna miss it now, do you?"_

"I… I… no…" Stanford stammered.

"_What would Dipper and Mabel think? Their dear ol' Grunkle Ford not only missing their summer reunion… breaking your promise twice, because what? You were busy on your boat trip?"_

_"_Hey, old man Stanford," I said, "don't listen to it. It's not real."

"But… but… he's right…" Stanford began sweating profusely. "I… have been putting work above… family… again…"

"Snap out of it," I yelled. "Now isn't the time. I refuse to die here today, I have too much on the line. This is the work of the Stump for sure."

"No… it's not the st… it's… him… Christmas isn't coming," he muttered, "I've missed it… the kids will forget about me and…"

"You know what?" I snapped my finger, nearing all out of options, "You don't have to take my word for it. You wanna know how I know that Christmas isn't ruined for any of us?"

"How do you know?" Lucitor asked.

"I don't," I admitted to the nonsense, "but I can definitely find out for you. We'll just call Santa Claus on the phone, and ask him to verify. This is definitely the work of the Stump. I'll prove it to you."

Stanford shook his head, almost as if finally breaking out of his trance, thus squinting his eyes at my inane suggestion:

"How on earth do you plan on contacting Santa Claus?"

"By calling him on that blasted telephone over there," I pointed my finger as the ringing got louder and louder.

Ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping.

"Wait, how do you know it's a phone?"

"I don't."

"And you're risking my life on this ridiculous contraption?" Stanford cried.

"All of our lives, thank you very much. Not everything is about you, you know? But point taken. I probably won't do it. But I'm gonna do it."

"Don't do it! This creepy forest is doing a number on your psyche," said Lucitor, "All our psyches. I can smell the magic in the leaves, it's dampening my fire. It's whispering to you!"

"Imma do it!"

"No!"

"Mother Box said she knew Santa Claus," I said, "a trickster of a guy, she says, always like putting coal to the Darkseid."

"Stop talking to it like it's alive," Stanford began pulling out his hair.

"You ignorant loser, check this out," I picked up the ringing device, and put it against my ear, "moshi moshi, hai, yes, it's MonStar here… you wanna run that by me again? My mother is dead? Mina killed her? What? Don't you lie to me now. I am seeing Marco again even if I have to break my oath to the Corps, you hear?"

"Stop, stop, okay, I get it," Stanford cried. "I wasn't acting like myself. It's just… my troubling past. There are… old enemies I'd rather forget. But I still dream about them. About him. It's very disturbing."

"Oh, so that was your plan all along," said Lucitor. "Pretending to be mad so Stanford here could see the error of his ways."

I diverted my eyes elsewhere, away from the two's scrutinizing gazes.

"Sure… yeah… that… was my plan… AHEM!" I cleared my throat, "Oh and by the way I wasn't kidding when I said the Mother Box is sentient. I think she finally realizes that cooperating would be best for all of us. She doesn't want to die to the Stump after all. That's why she was calling us with her excessive ringing."

"You can speak to her?" Stanford glared in confusion.

"Oh, heck no. I have no idea what I'm saying," I admitted, "but the wand does… barely. And that's good enough for me. Apparently, she said that Santa Claus can be summoned if we wrongfully gift someone a pile of coal instead of an actual present. The catch? That someone cannot be on the Naughty List."

"Where are we going to get a pile of coal?" Lucitor asked.

"You're a fire demon," I said, "figure something out. There's plenty of trees around. You just have to put them in the mud for billions of years and coal will form right?"

"And we have that amount of time?"

"You are wielding a wand," I told her. "Just speed things up."

"Isn't that against the Corps Code? Speeding time up?"

"Just make a pocket universe and put the trees inside," I yelled, at my patience's limit, "I told you, the Princess and Quasar are petty, there are loopholes everywhere, they'll never even notice it."

"You better not put this on the report," she said, as she proceeded to gather all the trees around the forest and force them all into a pocket universe. It should not take very long now.

"The last thing we need to do now," I glanced to Stanford, "is to gift someone this wonderful present."

"You must be joking," said Stanford. "Didn't you read over my records? I'm not exactly a saint when it comes to my past deeds. I have no doubt that I'm on the top of that Naughty List. Though I stopped believing in big ol' Nick when I was three years old, so that's certainly not doing me any favors. There are wanted posters of me everywhere."

"Then that's a risk we'll have to take," I insisted, "we are running out of time here. You don't have to be a messiah, you don't even have to be a good person. You just have to be human, one who understands that he's flawed and is sorry about all of his past mistakes, whatever those may be. Also-the-Box-doesn't-like-us-Stars-and-said-that-it-has-to-be-a-human-like-you-because-we-Mewmans-don't-celebrate-Christmas-or-something. What an insane machine. Are you going to do this or not?"

"MonStar!" Lucitor called from afar, "The tree branch. It's slowed down significantly in double frozen time, but the speed is still relentless. I don't think I can dodge it."

"Is the coal ready?"

"Is mom's Lil' Chauncey a dumb pig-goat?"

"Yes. Hand it over then. Stanford, are you ready?"

"Fine. Give it to me then, if we die, then might as well go out trying."

"Merry Christmas you handsome old man," I tossed him the coal as I laughed on in the madness of the trees. "I have got to know where you get that turtleneck."

Ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping…

BOOM!

A bright flashing light exploded out of thin air, and out from the ashes of the New Gods' fire – came a massive portal, within it, the laugh that echoed across the entire cold winter season:

HO HO HO!

"Mother Box managed to locate him," I shouted, "you could've opened a portal all this time and yanked him straight to us? What was that business about the coal then? What do you mean you panicked? Wait, the coal wasn't actually meant to summon him? It was to tick him off and… oh… I see what you're doing."

"What on earth are you babbling about?" Lucitor shouted.

"Our goal was never to defeat the Stump," I explained. "It was to survive its attack and get the heck out of here. As long as Santa Claus and the Stump are duking it out, we have a chance to escape with our lives."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go," Stanford shouted.

"I'll open a portal right away," I said, raising my wand.

Ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping!

BOOM!

Another portal appeared out of thin air. To all of our confusion.

"What's this?"

Ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping ping…

"Because Stanford was wrongly gifted," I translated, "he is now then rewarded with the actual gift he deserves. A present from old Saint Nick himself… a way back home… to your family…"

"I… I…" Stanford stood there stuttering, stunned as he took in this view of this massive portal, swirling in cosmic magic, waiting for him to just step right through.

He came all this way, and now it looked like the universe had finally given him an out. Lucky old man.

He turned around, gazing at the two of us Stars, a concerned look crept up on his face:

"Will you kids be alright? I don't want to leave you behind… like this."

I shook my head, calling his bluff:

"Don't lie to me, old man. I know you don't care. We only met for one day. Now go back home to your family. Don't waste this Christmas miracle."

"I… I don't know what to say… I… thank y…"

"Alright, Mother Box, you can close the portal now," I cut him off, as the device agreed and let out a sharp clicking noise, permanently closing this cosmic whirlpool behind the old man.

I glanced at the device, smiling at the potential power.

"Welp, if we're going to figure where you come from and help you get back home," I said to the box, "you might as well stick around. We still have a few questions about your… functionality."

"Let's get going now," Lucitor tapped me on the shoulder. "We need to tend to our wounded."

"Right."


End file.
